More letters forwarded by Aunt Diana

Thanks for all that news. Who are the students? Sounds like Jim & Alice have their hands full.

(BJ I sent this to a friend in Washington since he ended up on the family list so even tho you know a lot of it will send it on.)

"Sorry, I guess you are on my family info list. Jim is my older brother who lives in Bastrop LA which is as far north as you can go just about. His wife is Alice and she had a sister and brother-in-law in Belle Chasse is just across the Mississippi river from the French Quarter. The family is large--3 sons who are married and have children and inlaws. Many of those folks came to Bastrop and Monroe (just south of Bastrop) to wait out the storm. Robert (Alice's brother-in-law) has been volunteering with the Red Cross for several years so he stayed down there. One of the son's has a wife from Austria who works with the foreign student's at LSUNO. When it came time to evacuate they brought several students with them and some are at Jim's house and some are in the campground nearby. They had lost contact with another group that was leaving with them but were not sure where they would find a place to stay. Those are in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Jim said that there is only 4 million people in Lousiana and now a third of them are without homes or livelyhood.")

I was surprised to hear on the news that a group of international students were marooned by the storm, awaiting rescue. This was in a piece about ham radio operators, I think.

We're helping settle a group of about 35 from a NO church. They've been at the Ramada, but only had funds for three days. Our church has a vacant house, just remodeled, and the rest will be housed at the Salvation Army.

They wanted to stay together, so this is the best we could manage. Bob and I have been hauling beds, etc this afternoon. Love, BJ

Posted by Michael at September 2, 2005 09:53 AM