Gros Morne Update

Gros Morne, February 22, 2010
The national day—weekend—of mourning was over a week ago but families continue to mourn their loved ones and the injured, among the 21,000 plus who have returned from PAP, continue to heal slowly. And we continue to live in fear of aftershocks or the more forceful earthquake that we have heard is possible. That possibility is what makes the cracks in buildings here appear so threatening. A week ago some of the religious in the parish met to exchange information on the damage we have seen. As Fr. Wilner noted, we have been slow to register the extant of the damage.
Here is a partial list of the Catholic buildings that need to be evaluated for safety:
In Town
St. Gabriel’s School and the sisters’ residence on the 2nd floor. The government inspector would not go upstairs. The sisters are living on the first floor and will move to a box tent in the yard. Most schools reopened Feb. 8 but St. Gabriel is only opening today with tarps in the yard.
The Gros Morne rectory has cracks. Fr. Nesly is living at the Jean Marie Vincent formation center in Grepin.
Notre Dame de la Chandeleur church, which was being enlarged, has new cracks.
Pendus
Fr. Wilner has told Ma Marcel that he doesn’t want her working inside the dispensary. It has cracks in all the rooms and across the floor.
The visitors’ house has cracks as does the church.
Pewou (parish of Decostiere—7th communal section of Gros Morne)
The church in Pewou (chapel of Fr. Nesly’s parish of Decostiere) which houses two classes has many cracks and so do both school buildings. Some cracks go down one side (inside and out) across the floor and up the wall on the other side.
Kalabat (Parish of Riviere Mancelle—1st and 2nd communal sections of Gros Morne)
The 2 story rectory/guest house is damaged. Fr. Jadotte is sleeping in an adjacent one-story room.
Last Thursday we expected an engineer to evaluate the damage but his plans were changed.