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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.

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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.
Global Health
Medical students work in the lab at Luke’s House, a free health clinic in New Orleans. From left, with faces visible, are Ryan Barry, Zahra Naeini, Karla Gallegos Díaz and Amelie Jacobs. A United Methodist pastor helped start the clinic in 2006 in response to the health care gap left by Hurricane Katrina. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Faith-based free clinic serves community
Luke’s House, a free clinic in New Orleans started by United Methodists, grew out of a need after Hurricane Katrina closed most avenues to health care.

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