Jonestown Mission Trip Is Cut Short By Flooding

Nicole Browne, Junior Staff Writer|March 21, 2016

Credit: Katie Holland (used with permission)

Missionaries were driven around the town by Sr. Kay to assess the damage.

A group of 16 Academy of the Holy Names students and four adult chaperones were forced to cut the Jonestown, Mississippi Mission trip short due to a state of emergency caused by record breaking flooding in the northern Mississippi area.

14 inches of rain overwhelmed Clarksdale, Mississippi (the neighboring town), flooding more than 300 homes and many more in other areas. Officials were concerned that many of the victims had not purchased flood insurance, most likely because “there hasn’t been rains like this since ’91” according to Sr. Kay, the Sister of the Holy Names that the Academy students stayed with.

President Obama even signed a order declaring a situation to be a major disaster. This means that the government will provide federal aid for the flood victims.

For this reason, the missionaries decided to leave Jonestown and drive to Memphis, Tennessee. They spent one day and night there, and left by plane the next morning.

Many were disappointed that the trip was cut short. Because of the flooding, the missionaries were unable to finish the work they had started at the home they were fixing up. Furthermore, they witnessed even more destruction to the town as flood waters quickly rose to citizens front doors.

Junior Elizabeth Dolan, a returning missionary, comments “It hurt to watch an already poor town be devastated by something so simple as rain. I left feeling helpless and that there was so much more work to be done.”

The water was so high at points, the group could not drive the cars to the work site and were forced to walk.
Credit: Katie Holland (used with permission)
The water was so high at points, the group could not drive the cars to the work site and was forced to walk.

Senior Sara Chowdhari, a leader on the trip this year, adds “I wish we could have stayed to help Jonestown after the floods. It seemed like they needed us then more than ever.”

Although the situation was glum, the missionaries made the best of the next day in Memphis by going to the famous National Civil Rights Museum.

The Lorraine Motel, the motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, was transformed into the National Civil Rights Museum.
Credit: Katie Holland (used with permission)
The Lorraine Motel, the motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, was transformed into the National Civil Rights Museum.