Man thought to have perished in Katrina is alive and kicking

Published: 2008-03-04

NEW ORLEANS (CNS) -- First, the good news. Uriel Little, 76, is alive and kicking. What has Little scratching his head these days -- two and a half years after he was evacuated from St. Bernard Manor before Hurricane Katrina hit -- is a stately stone monument erected Aug. 29, 2007, by St. Bernard Parish, a civil entity, to honor the 137 St. Bernard residents who perished during the storm. The name "URIEL LITTLE" is chiseled into the stone. Displaying a wry sense of humor, Little said it just isn't so. Little, a former member of St. Louise de Marillac Parish in Arabi, was evacuated to Texas two days before the storm. He spent many months at the Wynhoven Apartments operated by Christopher Homes, the New Orleans archdiocesan housing agency, and is now living in an assisted living apartment at St. Margaret's Daughters Nursing Home in New Orleans. How did Little feel when relatives told him about his being memorialized on the stone monument on the banks of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet at Shell Beach? "I didn't think it was too good -- but as long as it wasn't true, that's the main thing," Little said, smiling.

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