A recent
CBS5 report served to highlight what residents
of New Orleans have known for years: this
is a real haunted city.
CBS5 reporter Janet Yee, embedded with a unit
of California National Guard First Responders
stationed in New Orleans recently revealed
that there’s something more spooky than
just the horrific images of disaster and death
surrounding them. According to Yee, it seems
that the hurricane may have displaced more
than just living victims.
The Sophie B. Wright Middle School on Napoleon
Avenue in New Orleans where the California
Guard unit is stationed has stood empty since
the evacuation of the city during Hurricane
Katrina in August. The Guards have taken over
the school for use as a staging area for assignments
throughout the storm-battered metropolitan
area. These daily assignments expose the Guardsmen
to some of the most devastated areas of the
city where, in the immediate aftermath of
the storm, bodies floated and the dead outnumbered
the living rescuers.
Sophie B. Wright Middle School,
CIRCA 1930 1426 Napoleon Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70115
Orleans Parish
But it’s the activities
inside the school that have the California
guardsmen most spooked, according to Yee’s
report. Several guardsmen, many of whom are
battle-hardened soldiers who have served in
Iraq and Afghanistan, recount chilling tales
of shadowy spirits, unexplainable noises,
and the ghost of a little girl who seems curious
about the bustle of new activity inside the
school.
“Said Sgt. Robin Hairston of the California
National Guard: "I was in my sleeping
bag and I opened by eyes and in the doorway
was a little girl. It wasn't my imagination."
The California guards have a definite sense
that they are not alone in the building. Many
were so troubled that they asked the company
chaplain to intervene. In an effort to dispel
some of the fears, the chaplain went through
the building, Bible and holy water in hand,
and demanded of the spirits: “In the
name of Jesus Christ, I command you Satan
to leave the dark areas of this building.”
Which is all well and good, except that, as
many experts contend, hauntings are not always
the result of demonic infestation. This is
something important to keep in mind, especially
when staying in a city as haunted as New Orleans.
True to form, the Sophie B. Wright School
spirits kept right on manifesting.
According to Yee’s report Spc. Rosales
Leanor had her own encounter with the ghosts
in one of the school’s restrooms.
"I was using the restroom and I just
saw a little shadow," Leanor said. "Kind
of looming in front of me."
The twelve foot high ceiling
of the restroom was damaged by a water leak
during the storm that caused the old plaster
to give way exposing the old woodwork and
a gaping, black hole into an attic crawl space.
This hole, Yee suggests and many of the guards
believe, is a major source of the spirit activity
now taking place inside the school. Yee herself
claimed to have seen a “cloudy”
apparition lingering near the ceiling of the
restroom before she even began her investigative
report.
In a hallway adjacent to the
restroom is a janitor’s closet containing
cleaning supplies. Oddly, this is the location
where the ghost of the little girl is most
often felt and heard. Another member of the
Guard unit said that she saw and heard a little
girl laughing when she opened the closet to
retrieve some cleaning supplies.
The California Guards are taking
the ghostly visits in stride and, as one might
expect, it is just another strange part of
their experience in the devastated city that
was once New Orleans.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina
many pundits and self-righteous individuals
with axes to grind pointed to the devastation
as a deliberate act of an angry God. Saying
that God had finally acted on His displeasure
by bringing a storm of retribution on a city
they see as “the Sodom of the South.”
Before dismissing the claims
as patently absurd it might be well to keep
in mind the experiences of yet another National
Guard unit at a Baton Rouge area marina. According
to Yee, boats were tossed about like toys
and there wasn’t a shred of trash or
paper around except for a single Bible that
was found nearby, open to the Book of Revelation.
Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps
not, at a nearby church that was almost completely
destroyed by the force of Hurricane Katrina
another Bible was found, open to the exact
same passages in Revelation.
The passages in question are
Chapters 10 and 11 that make reference to
the “witnesses of God” who will
be destroyed:
“. . . And their dead
bodies will lay in the street of the great
city which spiritually is called Sodom . .
. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues,
and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half
days and not allow their dead bodies to be
put into graves. And those who dwell on the
earth will rejoice over them, make merry,
and send gifts to one another…”
Of course, the detractors and,
in this case at least, even the guardsmen
didn’t completely read the Bible passage
they so quickly held up as an epitaph for
drowned New Orleans. Had they done so they
might have found a more hopeful message:
“Now after the three-and-a-half
days the breath of life from God entered them,
and they stood on their feet, and great fear
fell on those who saw them. And they heard
a loud voice from heaven saying to them ‘Come
up here.’ And they ascended to heaven
in a cloud, and their enemies saw them . .
. and the rest were afraid and gave glory
to the God of heaven.”
What Yee and the Guardsmen in
her report seemed to overlook entirely is
that New Orleans is a special city where for
generations so many of our wise have walked
hand in hand with the powers around us. Men
and women of faith, representing nearly every
culture and religion, have all contributed
to the melting pot that is the fabulous City
of New Orleans. Steeped in a predominantly
Catholic culture, with a thriving community
of Afro-Caribbean traditions, there is something
about New Orleans that keeps everyone –
living and dead – coming back and hanging
around.
The guards stationed at Sophie
B. Wright Middle School got only a tiny taste
of the hauntings that fill this grand old
town. Unfortunately, the disaster of Hurricane
Katrina was so complete that in the minds
of many it could only have been the act of
an angry God.
Whatever forces of Nature and spirit combined
to bring the horrible devastation of August
on this City, the experiences recounted here
just go to show that the true spirit(S) of
New Orleans will never be kept down or categorized.
Indeed, there are mighty protectors who have
kept New Orleans alive for nearly three hundred
years and perhaps it is these intelligences
who left their calling cards in the aftermath
of the storm?
View Janet Yee’s full report and video
for CBS5 by following this link:
Click here > CBS 5: Guardsmen
Sense Ghostly Presence In New Orleans
Never a winning season for the
New Orleans Saints, the great white elephant
of the Superdome sits battered and beaten
by the rage of Hurricane Katrina. Said to
be built on razed cemeteries, is the Dome
cursed, as many believe? Or is this all part
of some larger plan? In her lifetime, famed
psychic Jeane Dixon (1918-1997) was an astrologer
and alleged psychic. Her reputation for having
done so began when it was recalled after the
assassination that the following had appeared
in Parade magazine in 1956: made many predictions,
such as the assasination of President John
F. Kennedy and the 1964 Alaskan earthquake.
When she visited New Orleans and toured the
Superdome, Dixon made dark predictions about
a future time when people would gather in
the building in fear of their lives; in her
vision she saw clouds around the Superdome
roof and sunlight pouring in afterward as
people cried in fear and pain. Can it be that
Jeanne Dixon foresaw the tragedy of Hurricane
Katrina, the largest and most costly natural
disaster in America's history ?Or is it th
e real overture to a Brave New World for the
children of Cain?
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT
HURRICANE KATRINA!
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by visiting our messageboards! Click HERE.
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Ghost Photos And Ghost Stories Here by Email!
Jeane Dixon Museum and Library The Jeane Dixon
Museum and Library tells the story of one
of the most remarkable women of the 20th century.
On display you will find her personal possessions,
furnishings, and personal and professional
papers that chronicle her life as a psychic.
Best known as the seer who correctly predicted
Kennedy's assassination, Dixon also predicted
the fates of several other celebrities with
astonishing accuracy. These exhibits thoroughly
describe Jeane's accomplishments, and also
examine her skeptics' theories explaining
paranormal activities. Open Friday's, Saturday's,
and Sunday's, May through October, and also
by appointment.
(Jeanne Dixon died in1997) She
was a prolific predictor of events, she foretold
the rapture of India, assassinations of Mahatma
Ghandhi, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy,
and his brother Robert. Mrs. Dixon predicted
the launch of Sputnik and the sinking of the
submarines USS Thresher and Scorpion. Her
successful predictions include the political
defeat of Dewey by Harry Truman, the landslide
election of Dwight Eisenhower, the demise
of Nikita Kruschev, and the plane crash that
killed UN Secretary Dag Hammarskold.
Hurricane Names 2006
Atlantic Hurricane & Tropical Storm Names
Hurricane Season Runs From June
1 - November 30.
Last year's hurricane season
blew away the predictions. Here's what a leading
forecaster from Colorado State University
says:
· This season will be busy, but not
as intense as last year.
· There's a 81 percent chance a major
hurricane could hit along the U.S. coast and
a 64 percent chance one could hit the East
Coast.
· The still-recovering Gulf Coast could
be hit again -- there's a 47 percent chance
of a major hurricane striking there.
NEW ORLEANS LOUISIANA HURRICANE
EVACUATION AND PREPAREDNESS VISIT HERE
