St. Frances Cabrini Church - After Hurricane Katrina

After Hurricane Katrina

The church suffered great damage from hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, including wind damages and flood waters and from standing in nearly 10 feet (3.0 m) of water for many weeks before the city authorities could drain the flood water from the city. The damages were so extensive that the Archdiocese of New Orleans decided not to try and refurbish the church or demolish it and rebuild anew. The decision was partly because the church's roof was very challenging and costly to maintain requiring constant repairs which often went beyond the parish's means. For some years prior to Katrina, the parish itself had undergone somewhat of a transformation since time necessitated that the great generation of members who founded the parish and built the churches pass on the torch to lead the parish to a new generation that unfortunately was less engaged and smaller in population. The parish was gaining new and younger families to the area when hurricane Katrina devastated all the surrounding neighborhoods as well as the parish causing the entire parish to be displaced.