Sr Teresa Rooney mailed a letter to members of her Holy Faith congregation around the world. Then came news that hurricane Katrina was heading for the Gulf Coast and Sr Teresa had to heed the emergency warnings and evacuate.

Flag of Trinidad and Tobago among flags of Ireland , Peru , United States and Australia and New Zealand .

Sr Marie Young, provincial for Holy Faith Sisters in Trinidad received Sr Teresa's letter Wednesday, Sept 7, even as she and other members of the local congregation tried to ascertain whether the two sisters based in New Orleans , Louisiana were safe.

Sr Marie and a local delegation returned from Ireland late last month where they attended the congregation's general chapter at which both Sr Teresa and Sr Maura O' Donovan were present.

The two Irish sisters returned to New Orleans and their ministries in poor communities. They are engaged in a range of parish work, which includes both religious and social action, and Sr Teresa had just initiated a new fund-raising project for her ministry.

Sr Marie received the letter postmarked New Orleans , which asked for contributions of favourite recipes of the sisters to be published in a volume later this year. Proceeds from the publication would have been used to fund her work among the poorest communities.

Sr Teresa Rooney (left) with Sr Mairead Langley at Holy Faith's General Chapter.

Up to this week Sr Marie had been unable to contact Sr Teresa, but Holy Faith contacts in California confirmed that both were safe, St Teresa with a Holy Faith Associate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Sr Maura in San Antonio, Texas.

Sr Teresa had spent a summer in Trinidad when she joined another Holy Faith member Sr Rosario Hackshaw in Matelot for a reading programme in the primary school. A source at TT Post's facility in Piarco confirmed that the letter to Sr Marie would have been among the last to leave New Orleans and would most definitely be among the last bearing a New Orleans postmark for a long time.