METAIRIE, La. — Wednesday night hundreds of displaced residents of Metairie Towers will finally get to hear from officials about the future of their homes.
They are displaced throughout the region and don't know when they can return to the building damaged by Hurricane Ida. The storm ripped holes in the roof.
The night Hurricane Ida came barreling through, Father Joseph Palermo worried about damage at his church and school, St. Francis Xavier. People in the 219 condos of Metairie Towers, across the street, thought they had nothing to worry about. Carolyn Diaz lived in the concrete building and saw something out of her third flood window.
“These huge pieces flying through the air and I'm thinking what is that?” remembers Carolyn Diaz, who had to evacuate from her condo in Metairie Towers.
Ida was peeling the roof away layer by layer.
“There was water pouring down the steps, water in the lobby, the tiles in the lobby were flying, so it was a danger zone,” Diaz said.
She called 911. Then she called Father Palermo.
“She said she was standing in the lobby in about six inches of water, that the water was pouring in from both the hurricane and the sprinkler system,” said Fr. Palermo, recalling their phone conversation.
He offered the church as a safe haven.
“We evacuated through that 150 mile per hour storm with the help of fire department,” said Diaz.
Complete strangers, good Samaritans, showed up to help Jefferson Parish firefighters get more than three dozen senior residents to safety in the church.
“They took their vehicles and they just, you know, came out in the middle of the storm, which is extraordinary,” said Fr. Palermo.
Inside the church that night, there was fear, and anxiety for some.
“It was traumatic. The people, several of the people said, ‘I never imagined that something like this could happen.’ Two or three elderly women, who were very, you know, very much fearful and needed to be constantly reassured and calmed,” recalls Fr. Palermo.
But there were moments of levity as well.
“The women were kind of up and alert, wondering what's next, and I'm thinking where are all the men, you know, where are all the men? Well, they all were sound asleep in the pews,” Diaz said with a laugh.
“The men who were here for the most part slept, and actually a couple of them were snoring,” remembers Fr. Palermo.
One man even had a revelation that night.
“’Father, pews are made for praying not for sleeping,’ which was one of the great lines,” Fr. Palermo recounts an evacuees parting words to him.
The people of Metairie Towers are scattered everywhere. Carolyn misses the comradery and her friends. She's renting a furnished condo, but bills mount for residents as they pay new rent, plus old condo fees and mortgages, and now packing, and moving expenses.
When asked how hard was it for residents to find places to live, she replied, “Very difficult. Very difficult because it was so sudden, and it was like mass confusion. ‘Where can I go?’” Diaz said people were asking.
“One lady had told me, ‘My plan before this was to move from the Metairie Towers to Schoen's Funeral Home’ and she said, ‘And now it's all messed up,’” said Fr. Palermo.
Carolyn says there are still many unanswered questions about the building, insurance and when they can return. Some friends moved away for good. But it's documented that those who best adjust to change in later life, have longevity.
“I feel like I can do it. It's one step at a time. You know we can't think to the end of life. You have to think of today,” Diaz said optimistically.
Fr. Palermo is planning a lunch reunion Sunday, October 17, at the church, for the Metairie Towers residents.