Sacred Heart Brothers, students survive hurricane in Mississippi

Published: 2005-09-15

MOBILE, Ala. (CNS) -- With assistance from a Sacred Heart brother in Mobile, a group of Sacred Heart brothers in Mississippi and their foreign-student charges were rescued from their hurricane-battered school. And with the help of a Louisiana judge, the students got replacements for their passports and other school records washed away by the raging floodwaters. The 47 foreign students -- 17 South Koreans and 30 Mexicans -- were among 150 people stranded Aug. 29 at the height of Hurricane Katrina in three separate buildings at St. Stanislaus School, a boys residential and day school in Bay St. Louis, Miss. The campus is just a stone's throw from the Gulf of Mexico. The group -- which included a handful of teaching brothers and prefects, numerous lay faculty members, cafeteria staff and their families, and 20 or so mostly elderly and physically challenged men -- endured the harrowing storm. When the storm was over, Sacred Heart Brother Paul Mulligan, a faculty member at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in Mobile, dispatched a tour bus to bring the brothers and students safely to Mobile. Then, after federal Judge Frank Pollazola of Baton Rouge, La., called various agencies and foreign embassies to help replace their paperwork, all the students were able to journey home to the safety of their families.

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