LDS wards in Katrina's wake face uncertainty

SLIDELL, La. — In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated their homes, hometowns and places of worship, a great many members of the LDS Church with ties to Utah and elsewhere have packed up and headed north — which, from New Orleans, is the only direction one now can travel.

At least two wards of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the New Orleans area may not rebound for some time. Others have been seriously impacted.

Members of the New Orleans (Spanish) 2nd Ward evacuated before the storm to Alexandria, La. Seeing the condition of their homes on television, they are planning to move elsewhere.

Another meetinghouse, the Chalmette Ward of the Slidell Louisiana Stake, located in the St. Bernard Parish of greater New Orleans, is submerged and likely will take years to rebuild.

"We are a small stake, and to lose a ward is huge," said Charlene Kirby, Slidell Stake Relief Society president.

After the storm, "Chalmette was forgotten" by the officials, she said. "So many communities were not reported on, as the focus stayed on New Orleans."

She described the ward as having grown slowly over the past two decades, with a membership that did not change much. But it retained its members over time.

"It was a little bitty ward and close-knit," she said. At one time, the ward used a school for a meetinghouse. "We met in the hallways, and we loved it."

Another with links to the Chalmette Ward is David Navo, now bishop of the Picayune Ward, who also lamented Chalmette's losses.

Bishop Navo said even those maintaining the local hospital armed themselves for protection in the looting that followed the storm.

But the horrific experiences of those who opted to weather the storm and faced the trauma of the subsequent flooding and unrest, coupled with the water ruining property and becoming toxic, make it likely that the area's old neighborhoods won't reconstitute quite the same.

Still, much of the LDS stake is composed of people who have been here for generations, and many of them will likely return if given the option, their local leaders say.

Farther down the coast, residents of beach cities contemplate the unbelievably extensive wreckage where they once lived and worked — most of the damage caused by a 28-foot surge of ocean water driven by Katrina's 190-mph gusts.

Robert Garrett, bishop of a ward in Waveland, Miss., said that within the ward, only 11 habitable homes remain where once 380 families lived. He said the heat and the stench of the mud fuel feelings of hopelessness, but "We're going to give it a grand try."

He said some of his people have stopped by with everything they have left loaded in the car trunk to say goodbye.