Southern New England is overdue for a major hurricane. The last big one, in terms of lives lost, damage and cost, was the Great Hurricane of 1938. A lot has changed since then that will make the next one even more severe.

V igilantly we awaited news on what would happen when the full force of Hurricane Gustav hit New Orleans, almost three years to the day that Hurricane Katrina struck with brute force. This time there was better preparation. Most residents evacuated the city. Many were assisted with transportation that the local government provided in advance. New Orleans was forced to watch and see if the tenuous levees would be strong enough to hold back water.

Katrina Benefit

The pastors of the United Methodist Cooperative Ministry will sponsor a fund-raiser today, Friday, Jan. 18 to help support volunteers who will travel to Slidell, La., to help with post-Hurricane Katrina reconstruction.

The event, which will feature home-made waffles, is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Christ United Methodist Church, Church street, Vineyard Haven. More information is available by calling 508-645-3100.

Katrina Volunteers

More than two years after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, volunteers still are cleaning up and rebuilding areas ravaged by the hurricane.

Skip and Mary Ann Danforth of Chatham, through the United Methodist Committee of Relief, have been leading such groups of volunteers, returning to Louisiana four times. They will be leading another group from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2.

Charter School Students

Plan Katrina Relief Work

A group of high school students from the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School will return to Biloxi, Miss., to continue their Hurricane Katrina relief work. The students will be traveling Jan. 6 through 12 to work with the Restoration Point non-profit organization.

The Federated Church of Edgartown is sending volunteers on a 10-day mission to New Orleans in November to continue the rebuilding work the church youth group began last December.

With the passing of the second anniversary of Katrina, and with so much left incomplete, inadequate, or non-existent in this still-ravaged area, the volunteers feel called to lend additional physical, emotional and spiritual support.

Youth Group at Federated Church Returns from Mission to Aid New
Orleans Cleanup

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

A large area in and around New Orleans remains devastated after
Hurricane Katrina brought high winds and a storm surge to the Gulf Coast
in August 2005.

Hurricane Katrina Anniversary Stirs Memories

Vineyard Residents Who Helped Vividly Recall Battered Region

By TOM DRESSER

During the eight years that former West Tisbury teaching assistant
Jill Dresser (who is my daughter) lived in New Orleans, the common
refrain she heard was that it was a doomed city, a bowl that had sunk
below water. Potholes were frequently seen gushing up water. Rain storms
quickly became momentary afternoon floods. And there always was talk of
The Big One.

Listening to Hard Lessons of Hurricane Katrina

By JAMES KINSELLA

The anguished crying went on and on, echoing within the walls of the
Old Whaling Church in Edgartown, where hundreds sat in silence.

On the screen at the front of the hall, a mother was walking away
from the grave of her five-year-old daughter, who drowned when the
levees outside New Orleans broke last August 30, sending the swollen
waters of Hurricane Katrina pouring into the streets of the mostly
black, mostly poor Ninth Ward.

They are two of the most accomplished and respected scholars both in
the nation's elite collegiate circles and in the African-American
community, but on Wednesday morning Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Dr.
Charles J. Ogletree Jr. were preoccupied with one thing - going
fishing.