CHALMETTE, La. — Hundreds of mourners dropped notes, cards and letters — many of them stained with tears — into a steel-gray casket Saturday in a symbolic burial of Hurricane Katrina.
One letter written by a child in red crayon said: “Go away from us.” Another note remembered one of the 1,800 victims of Katrina: “R.I.P. Gloria, I will always love you.”
The casket, along with some of the anger, grief and frustration, was later interred under an appropriately dark sky as rain pounded umbrellas.
The church that celebrated the Mass, Our Lady of Prompt Succor, was flooded five years ago.
When the casket was finally closed, people applauded.
“I’ve been to many funerals,” said Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond. “But I’m sure this is the first time I’ve heard applause when they closed the casket.”
The funeral was one of dozens of events planned to mark the fifth anniversary of the storm that wrecked New Orleans, south Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. President Barack Obama will speak today at Xavier University in New Orleans.
Rebuilding couldn’t even start in New Orleans for a month after the Aug. 29, 2005, storm, because floodwaters were still being pumped out of the city.
A march and “healing ceremony” are also scheduled in the Lower Ninth Ward, where many houses still stand vacant, with a circle painted on them indicating they had been searched and whether bodies were in them.
“I’m tired of the anniversaries,” said Barbara Washington, 77, who lost her home in New Orleans and is now living in a suburb. “I miss my home every day. I feel lost. But I also know we are getting back. We’re survivors.” The Associated Press
