New Orleans, USA - For the first time since Hurricane Katrina hit, the brass bell tolled Sunday at St. Patrick's Church to welcome to Mass a handful of worshipers, mostly residents who had recently returned to the city.
"You can call this a homecoming bell for New Orleans," Robert Ramirez said as he rang the huge bell just before 8 a.m. at the church on Camp Street, near the French Quarter. "We have good news we want to get out. We are trying to get up and running. The whole thing is starting to come together."
Despite the sparse attendance, Mass at St. Patrick's was among the signs that life was returning to near normality in some areas of New Orleans. Thousands of residents who had fled Hurricane Katrina began returning to the area this weekend, most of them to homes relatively unscathed.
At St. Louis Cathedral in the heart of the French Quarter, Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes offered Mass for the first time since the storm hit more than a month ago. The overflowing crowd included hundreds of local worshipers as well as police officers, members of the National Guard and dozens of other rescue workers.
"Some of us still suffer from shock, from fear, from devastation, from depression, from anger," Archbishop Hughes said. "But that is not the last word," he added. "We in New Orleans are a people of faith."
News cameras crowded around the church, annoying some of the residents who had come seeking solace. A sign that prohibited taking photographs during Mass was ignored for the day.
"I just want to hear the Word and go home," said Larry Bastian, 38, who moved to a new apartment after his home in New Orleans East was destroyed. "I have a job here, but no family, no friends. They are all gone. So here I am, tired and lonely."
At St. Patrick's, parishioners embraced, relieved to see friends they had not heard from in weeks. They exchanged stories of traveling to safety and returning to varying degrees of destruction. They all wondered whether their church would ever have as many worshipers as it did before the hurricane.
"All of September, we missed all of September," said Kathy Jordan, 57, shaking her head as she thought about the last time she attended Mass at St. Patrick's.
Ms. Jordan's home in Belle Chasse had some roof damage; her nieces' and sisters' were destroyed. "Even now, nobody knows what they are going to do," she said. "We just get back and try to start all over."
A revised re-entry plan for New Orleans allowed about 200,000 residents to return to several parts of the city late last week, and more people returned to homes in the surrounding areas. Highways exits opened, supermarkets restocked their shelves, and restaurants began serving food.
There is no way to know just how many residents returned to New Orleans. But if the weekend was any guide, they are likely to return slowly, not en masse.
Checkpoints were not choked, though steady traffic continued on highways and several city streets. Several residents were simply looking at their homes and then at the city in the rearview mirror, heading back to wherever they had found a place to stay. Others were determined to settle in, even with undrinkable water and spotty electricity.
"It's messy, real messy," said Althea Williams, who returned Saturday to her home with major roof damage after staying with family in North Carolina for nearly a month. "And if you can't drink the water, I'm not going to bathe in it. But I have to be here. I have a job here and a life here."
Others wondered if they would stick to their plans to stay.
On the Sunday before the storm hit, Ann and Ed Moll headed to Baton Rouge. Ms. Moll could easily list the things she missed about the city; elaborate Sunday brunches, late afternoon sips of vodka and the traditional Mass at St. Patrick's topped the list.
"With all that, you can't get me to leave here," she said. "This is where we know how to worship and have fun. Everything in its place."
Then she stopped. "It feels good to be home," she said, "real good."
Ms. Moll will stay in the city, returning to her job as a nurse, though with reduced hours. Mr. Moll will remain in Baton Rouge to work. In case their rebuilding plans here fail, they have bought a plot of land in Baton Rouge.
"There are so many uncertainties," said Ms. Moll, 50, who returned to a relatively unscathed home in Algiers. "Even if you have a house to come back to, you don't know what will happen with insurance and your job and your family."
Mr. Moll wondered aloud: "What happens to the friends we still don't see here? You have people all over the country, and now we may never see them again."