After the Storm
by Jason Pearce • November 2005 • 1 Comment •
When we last spoke with Max Mayfield (Oklahoma 1970) for the spring 2005 Cross & Crescent, he was preparing for hurricane season.
www.fraternalrelief.org
Less than two days after Katrina struck, our office launched www.fraternalrelief.org to coordinate the news and safety of our members.
Visitors to the site were able to easily add news about their chapter as staff worked to contact every undergraduate member in the area until everyone was accounted for.
Lambda Chi Alpha made the website available to all fraternal organizations; more than 30 participated. More than 18,000 interfraternal friends visited the site the week after Katrina struck.
Nearby Chapters
Nine chapters are within 400 miles of New Orleans.
- Ground Zero: New Orleans
- 80 miles: Louisiana State
- 136 miles: Louisiana-Lafayette
- 143 miles: Spring Hill
- 187 miles: Millsaps
- 310 miles: Auburn-Montgomery
- 314 miles: Troy
- 338 miles: Mississippi State
- 364 miles: Auburn
If you missed that story, Mayfield is the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Hurricane Center. Known for his accurate and timely forecast, even he and his team couldn’t have possibly predicted the devastation we experienced this fall.
Lambda Chi Alpha had nine chapters within a 400-mile radius of Hurricane Katrina’s path. Of these nine, the Lambda-Alpha chapter at the University of New Orleans sustained considerable damage. Photos from inside the chapter house show water-damaged composites still hanging on the wall.
Roughly a 20-man chapter, half of the members relocated to other campuses. The other half are taking time to get their personal and family lives back in order.
Our chapters and undergraduates were not the only ones affected. We have more than 400 alumni who called New Orleans home.
We asked members to submit first-person short stories about how Katrina affected them. Of those received, here are two we’d like to share.
A City We Embraced
by Dennis Rogers (Southern Methodist 2000)
Dennis Rogers lived less than one mile from a breached levee. When he returned home to survey the damage, boats passed him on the streets.
Too Shocking to Believe
by Mark Decker (New Orleans 2001)
A hurricane used to be an excuse to miss work or throw a candle-lit party. This time, Mark Decker found himself searching for family, fraternity brothers, and a home.
W. Leon Pearce Says:
November 4th, 2005 at 7:13 pmJason,
I was just curious when I saw your name on this article. The spelling of your last name and mine are the same as you can see.
Many of my relatives came from northern Louisiana and Georgia. Could you be a relative?
I graduated from Oklahoma State in 1957 and ‘60, and was a member there.
Leon Pearce