Your privacy is our policy. See our new Privacy Policy.


Navigation Back Search
Search

Katrina work crew remembers 100 trips

By Lilla Marigza
Aug. 1, 2025 | TIPP CITY, Ohio (UM News)

Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, volunteers recall how “being the hands and feet of Christ” affected their lives while rebuilding homes in Louisiana. Video by Lilla Marigza, UM News.

E. Dwight Franklin helps with the gutting of his parents’ home in New Orleans six months after Hurricane Katrina. Virginia Tech student Ivy Gorman (background) was part of a team from her school working through the Louisiana United Methodist Storm Recovery Center during their spring vacation. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.

All eyes were on the Louisiana Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina in August of 2005. In the months and years following the Category 3 hurricane, the destruction faded from the headlines. But some United Methodist Volunteers in Mission teams didn’t stop going back to help.

For over a decade, Ginghamsburg United Methodist in Ohio was one of those churches still helping people put their lives and their homes back together.

Learn more about Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Tipp City, Ohio.

Watch video documentary, “Mission Slidell,” produced by Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church.

Marigza is a multimedia producer for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.

Related Tags

Sign up for our newsletter!

Subscribe Now
Disaster Relief
Photo courtesy of the Louisiana Conference.

Louisiana Conference: Hope Beyond the Storm podcast series
A special series of the Louisiana NOW podcast shares first‑hand stories of resilience, hard choices and pastoring from church leaders, volunteers and neighbors who rebuilt together twenty years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Disaster Relief
The Rev. Callie Winn Crawford describes the process of reopening and restoring Rayne Memorial United Methodist Church in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, sending the 60-foot steeple crashing through the roof. Crawford said the church hosted volunteer teams for almost three years. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Church’s light shines bright in New Orleans
In the early days of Katrina recovery, Rayne Memorial United Methodist became a hub for housing and deploying volunteer teams that came to muck and gut the houses around New Orleans.
Disaster Relief
Dr. Sue Berry recalls her service directing a special-needs shelter in Lake Charles, La., in the days following Hurricane Katrina. Berry is a member of Rayne Memorial United Methodist Church in New Orleans. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

New Orleans doctor answers call to serve after hurricane
Dr. Susan Berry was leaving New Orleans with her family to escape Hurricane Katrina, but she felt called to stay and help during the public health crisis that followed.

United Methodist Communications is an agency of The United Methodist Church

©2025 United Methodist Communications. All Rights Reserved