EMERGENCY UPDATE: HURRICANE KATRINA AND COVENANT HOUSE NEW ORLEANS
From: Stacey Horn Koch, Executive Director, Covenant House New Orleans
Dear Family,friends and colleagues,
Thank all of you for all of your love and support during this time. As most of you know my family, both human and animal, are all fine. I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones. I only have a few feet of water in my house and the wonderful and supportive group of people around me. We evacuated the children and staff of Covenant House New Orleans to Covenant House Houston. For the first time in the history of Covenant House New Orleans our staff are more homeless than our children.
I thought I might share with you the story of someone of whom I now stand in awe. Last weekend I was concerned about my maintinance supervisor, Mr. Calvin Burns and knew that Covenant House New Orleans had plenty of food and water to feed people who were still in the city without. So, I grabbed a friend with a badge to get me throgh the check points and headed into New Orleans. When I arrived at Covenant House, I found Mr. Calvin on the premesis with 40 people. Mr. Calvin had begun the hurricane with his family in the Iberville projects despite my urging that he either leave with us or ride it out at Covenant House where we had food, water and a generator. When the water started rising he did move his family to Covenant House. He also began to see people on the street and wading in the water.
At that point, he made a make-shift boat from a tool box that goes in the back of a pick up truck and began going back and forth through waist to chest deep water pulling people (including a parapalegic) to safety. Mr. Calvin is in his early 60s with a bad back and he marched miles in that water to save approximately 30 people he had never seen before in his life. After getting them to safety, he fed them, clothed them and kept them safe in Covenant House until I got there to get them out. It would have been easy for him to remain in the safety of Covenant House with more than enough supplies for himself and his family but fortunately for those 30 other people Mr. Calvin isn't made that way. Thank God for people like Mr. Calvin!
There are a few more people I feel I should tell you about. Captian Jeff Winn of the New Orleans police dept. was the only city official to try to help get everyone out of Covenant House before the storm. If it hadn't been for a call from him on Saturday, I would have been totally unprepared for the severity of the situation. The officers of the 1st District protected Mr. Calvin and the others til we could get them to safety.
Other staff members, most of whom are homeless, are here in Houston working with our kids many others are volunteering in shelters throughout LA & TX. I am so grateful to Covenant House Texas for opening their doors to our staff and children. Our presence here has certainly added stress but they have done everything humanly possible to make us feel completely welcome and at home here and given us the ability to continue our work.
Many of you have asked how you can help. I hope you will consider making a donation to Covenant House New Orleans. I am desperately trying to keep people employed and to keep our kids safe and assure a safe return to New Orleans when possible.
If you would like to help put Covenant House back together, please send your donation for Covenant House New Orleans to:
Director of Development
Covenant House California
1325 N. Western Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Please make check out to Covenant House New Orleans. You can also make a direct donation to Covenant House New Orleans by clicking here.
