St. Stephen’s gym roof, church steeple lashed by Ida

By Beth Donze
Clar ion Herald
 
On the afternoon of Aug. 29, as he was riding out Hurricane Ida inside his 83-year-old mother’s Metairie home, Msgr. Christopher Nalty’s cell phone lit up like a Christmas tree.
 
Friends from outside Louisiana were calling Msgr. Nalty — pastor of Good Shepherd Parish at St. Stephen Church in New Orleans — to tell him that they were watching a surreal event unfolding on WDSU TV: chunks of vinyl roofing, complete with their attached layer of insulation, were blowing up and down Napoleon Avenue in front of St. Stephen School.

Msgr. Nalty, who had already lost power in Metairie, couldn’t see the televised images, but his friends’ descriptions were vivid enough: the unhinged segments of roofing had packed enough punch to take down several utility lines and oak branches.
 
“On the Napoleon Avenue side of the school, up above the cafeteria, is our gym,” explained the priest, describing his gym’s “old-style” roof of ceiling tiles topped with insulation, tar paper and an exterior layer of vinyl. “I guess the storm got underneath those layers and ripped off all of the outer covering. It’s all over the street now.”
 
In turn, the compromised roof ushered in “a ton of water,” Msgr. Nalty said. 



“I’m sure the (wooden) floor of the gym is ruined,” he said. “The water on the gym floor leaked down into the cafeteria (on the first floor),  which isn’t a huge problem because of the terrazzo floor there.”
 
On Monday afternoon, Servepro was able to remove most of the water delivered by Ida, but the gym got inundated that night when it rained yet again.

Making remediation efforts more difficult is the fact that a traditional blue tarp is not recommended for roofs of this type, and installing a temporary roof is cost-prohibitive, Msgr. Nalty said. An interim plan to protect the gym building was still being determined Wednesday afternoon, he added. 
 
Meanwhile, the pastor and his flock are facing another casualty of Ida: St. Stephen Church’s iconic steeple, restored after Hurricane Katrina, lost segments of its copper sheathing in the category 4 storm. Some of the church’s slate roof tiles were also lost, Msgr. Nalty said.
 
“I picked up as much (copper) as I could from the street,” he said, adding that parts of the steeple’s plywood substructure are now visible.
 
Despite these setbacks, the parish’s daily Masses will continue to be celebrated Monday through Friday, but have been relocated to St. Stephen Church from their usual site at nearby St. Henry Church because of stifling heat and continuing loss of power. St. Stephen Church, whose windows can be opened, offers better ventilation, Msgr. Nalty said.

To accommodate the relocation, the daily Mass time has been moved from 6:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. Weekend Masses will proceed as usual at St. Stephen Church: a Saturday vigil at 4 p.m.; and Sunday Masses at 8 and 10:30 a.m.
 
Although the church itself received a bit of wind-driven water in the sanctuary, the leak proved to be in a good spot “because the water landed on the marble floor, which can take it,” Msgr. Nalty said.

The priest spent much of Wednesday discarding the contents of large freezers in his rectory that are used for Good Shepherd Parish’s food ministry, which provides homemade meals for the Rebuild Center (a day shelter for the homeless at St. Joseph Catholic Church on Tulane Avenue) twice a month, and for Ozanam Inn once a month. The rectory’s kitchen also serves as a walk-up pantry for those in need.
 
“It’s breaking my heart that I’m throwing out food that had already been cooked to feed people — things like red gravy and fish,” Msgr. Nalty said.
 
Refrigerators in the school cafeteria, which are powered by a generator, fared much better, Msgr. Nalty said, noting that the cafeteria is potentially of use to the school community as teachers and administrators devise their long-distance learning plan.
 
To view the WDSU video featuring the loss of the St. Stephen gym roof, visit  goodshepherdparishnola.com. A donation link is also available for those who wish to assist with restoration efforts. 

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