September 5, 2008
 
   
   
 
 
SHREVEPORT, La. (BP)--The families arrived with three days of clothes and little else. In the car seats you see what is valuable to them: a painting of a dog, a hand-stitched doll. Quite a few spent most of their money on evacuating and many come from the same parishes ripped up by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
      But instead of grief and anger, there's frustration and some healthy doses of gratitude as Hurricane Gustav evacuees fill places such as the Shreveport Fairgrounds -- a campus utilized by the American Red Cross and now, at dinnertime, filled with restless families carrying Styrofoam containers of red beans and sausage, corn and fruit.
      "I'm just so grateful," New Orleans resident Longelle Pierre said, eating a meal prepared 10 miles away at Willowpoint Baptist Church by a Tennessee Baptist disaster relief feeding unit from Shiloh Baptist Association. Her 8-year-old daughter held up a black-haired doll named Rosie. "We've had food here. Our pets have been cared for. We feel safe," Pierre added.
      Though separated from their homes by hundreds of miles, the key point is that most evacuees have homes to return to. Read More

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    NEW ORLEANS (BP)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary students, faculty and staff will have to wait a few days longer for their return to campus. The tentative return date now is set for Monday, Sept. 8. Read More
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  • First Person
    Gary D. Myers
    FIRST-PERSON: Evacuation brings blessing
    NEW ORLEANS (BP)--As I prepared to evacuate from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary campus ahead of Hurricane Gustav ...

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