[StBernard] St. Bernard residents gather at water's edge to honor Katrina victims

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard residents gather at water's edge to honor Katrina victims
by Bob Warren, The Times-Picayune 
Saturday August 29, 2009, 12:02 PM

As they have each year since Hurricane Katrina, St. Bernard Parish residents
gathered Saturday morning at the parish's hurricane memorial to pay their
respects to those who lost their lives in the disaster. 


The memorial is located at the end of the roadway in Shell Beach, where the
asphalt dead-ends at the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. It is a fitting
location, chosen by parish officials because the controversial shipping
channel is blamed by many in St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans for
exacerbating Katrina's deadly flooding. 

It took officials eight minutes to name the parish's 163 parish victims.
Family members then walked to the waterline, where a wreath was placed into
the murky water. 

All was quiet, save for the sounds of weeping and the water gently lapping
at the rocky shoreline as the wreath slowly floated away. 

Parish President Craig Taffaro vowed the dead will never be forgotten. 


"We will not let these members of our community, who have died, die in
vain," he told the gathering, noting that the parish would continue to meet
at the memorial each year on the morning of Aug. 29 to pay its respects. 

Later Saturday, St. Bernard Parish government planned to mark the
hurricane's fourth anniversary with a party at Torres Park in Chalmette
billed by officials as an opportunity to celebrate how far St. Bernard has
come on the long, arduous task of rebuilding almost from the ground up. 

But the morning event in Shell Beach was a time for reverence. 

A trip to the memorial -- a marble marker with engraved names accompanied by
a steel crucifix pounded into the shallows of the MRGO -- is an emotional
journey for many in the parish so thoroughly devastated by Katrina. 

"This is the first time I've been here," said Judy Rome of Chalmette, whose
sister and brother-in-law died in the hurricane. "I could never bring myself
to come before today." 

Rome said her sister, Georgia Jenkins, was a diabetic who was rescued from
her flooded Chalmette home but died before she could be evacuated. Her
brother-in-law, Joseph Jenkins, died inside the couple's Veronica Street
home when a bookcase fell on him, pinning him under water. He had gone back
inside the house to save the family's beloved dog, Rome said. 

"It's hard to come here," Rome said softly, after posing uncomfortably for a
snapshot in front of the memorial. "It's so hard." 

Ken Lobre of Chalmette, meanwhile, came to remember his mother, Oralie
Lobre, and his aunt, Jane Denley. His mother died during a nursing home
evacuation to Baton Rouge, he said. 

His aunt perished in St. Rita's Nursing Home in Poydras, which did not
evacuate for the storm and was swallowed by the flooding. Thirty-five
elderly people died at St. Rita's. 

"It's like losing two mothers," Lobre said.