Safe from the Storm
by: Jon Crane
Saturday Ramblins, Vol. 2, No. 9 (May 1, 1999)
(Pub. Note: Hurricane Georges was heading straight for New Orleans on Sunday morning, September 27, 1998. For the first time in history, city and parish officials called for an evacuation of the Crescent City. Thousands packed their cars and fled. This is the story of 50 of those refugees. The article first appeared in The Living Church, November 8, 1998.)
As Hurricane Georges bore down on the Gulf Coast, nearly a million worried people evacuated southern Louisiana, including several hundred thousand from New Orleans. About 50 of these refugees found a gratifying experience with another George.
St. Michael's [Episcopal] Church is located in Pineville, La., in the Diocese of Western Louisiana. Its rector, the Rev. George Gennuso, Jr., heard of the many people fleeing north looking for refuge. He informed the Red Cross that he'd be able to take up to 75 people and house them at the church.
On Sunday morning, Sept. 27, Fr. Gennuso asked the members of his congregation if they would help anyone seeking refuge at the church. Without hesitation, they agreed. However, an elderly parishioner, Miss Ruth, celebrating her 97th birthday, asked him with a sly smile, "Have you ever considered that you might want to change your name? The people left Georges to come to George."
By 2 p.m., the first of 50 people arrived, directed from Interstate Highway 49 by signs posted by St. Michael's parishioners. Most were families and came unprepared, with only the clothes they were wearing, and a few treasured possessions.
Members of the congregation supplied blankets, pillows and other necessities for the refugees. Although the Red Cross had promised food for those housed in the parish hall and Sunday school classrooms, the congregation prepared all the meals and served them, with no thought of compensation.
"It made me feel like I was in the right place," said Fr. Gennuso, who has been rector at St. Michael's for only three months. "It taught me what 'servinghood' is all about."
From Sunday afternoon until Tuesday morning, St. Michael's was home for families trying to keep out of harm's way. They had fled the threat of a storm named Georges and found safety, caring and Christian love in the arms of a congregation led by a man named George, two names they will never forget.