Praise for Katrina’s Grace

“This is the book on Katrina you will want to buy. In fact, purchase one for your church library and mission’s committee!‘ In poetic detail Sandra majestically describes moving accounts of loss and turmoil… but the story doesn’t dwell on loss. I was moved to tears by Sandra’s testimony of a God who cares and the generosity of many souls filled by God’s Grace… what a gift of Spirit-led writing.”

“…a book of loss, a book of hope, a book of joy, a book of life’s memories, a book of pain, a book of love, a book of grace found in the midst of devastation. There are many stories, stories within stories, reflecting Sandra’s courage to mourn, laugh, reveal heartache, celebrate happiness and find Grace in the depths of tragedy. Purple Birkenstocks carried Sandra on a life-changing adventure…. They lay dead on the floor in her damaged house. Many stories are about simple items, but they are not simplistic… but told with eloquence and extraordinary remembrance, each a continuing piece of history. Katrina’s Grace is anyone’s story who is seeking love and Grace in the turmoil of grief.” Sandra’s stories are hauntingly familiar, for I, too, am a Katrina survivor.

“Katrina’s Grace: Wind, Water and Wisdom, is a revelation of the profound difference between compassion and ‘pity.’ Sandra Lynn Price may not be ‘a voice crying in the wilderness,’ but she certainly is voice speaking clearly and passionately of the spirit amidst the ruins of individual lives and whole communities.”

“…a true Southern voice full of pathos and wonder and angst…and yet also full of joy…”

“‘I lived through Katrina.’ Most Mississippians can make that state- ment. I responded to ‘bring help, healing, and hope’ to those who lost so much. I worked for years in the relief efforts… I didn’t really experience Katrina, not the way Sandra Price did. I was an outsider trying to come along beside those who lost so much. This book gave me more closure on Katrina; it helped me feel it. Tears came… I had that lump in my throat when Sandra’s pictures were mostly un-restorable. I felt such loss over her treasured books… I needed to feel, and Sandra helped me. I also needed to be reminded that Grace comes over and over — sometimes in small, practical ways; sometimes in sunrises, sometimes in ‘a need filled just in time.’ …Sandra Price peeled back the outer part and showed her soul. Katrina’s Grace doesn’t give sugar-coated platitudes but soul felt truth of grief and the hope that comes in the midst of life.”

“Written with the pouring out of the passion that developed from personal experiences as a survivor of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Subsequently, it woke up a unique spirit of service that others affected by disaster now benefit from with her compassion through the VOAD movement.”

“As a grief counselor, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is living with the grief process. View the rich, vivid verbal images and experience the visceral, gut-wrenching awareness of the healing process that follows human tragedy. Sandra is a healer and those who read this book will catch a glimpse of the Master Healer’s Grace. For someone who visited the Gulf Coast after Katrina, witnessed the residents try to cope with loss, destruction, invasion of privacy, hopelessness, fear, uncertainty. This book is a reminder of the human struggle for survival, meaning, and hope. I was reminded of the vast array of emotions I witnessed in the eyes of those who remained. Sandra has recaptured the essence of that struggle through the images, emotions, recollections, and memoirs of her own journey to wholeness. Sandra is a visual artist. She paints vivid word memories of the devastation, aftermath, and healing process that she experienced with Hurricane Katrina.”

“Sandra invites readers into her spiritual center in which she con- templates the role and symbolism of water, its role in sustaining life and its counter role played out by Hurricane Katrina. She thinks about the wind that provides power and is the source of breath. Readers will appreciate her wise insights. She dives deep into the devastation of a once-in-a-lifetime storm – the hurt, the loss, the destruction – emerging throughout the story with glimmers of hope and wonder. [Experience] the struggle to keep on living through the rebuilding of the stuff of life. Sandra recounts the agony of parting with possessions that held priceless memories. She discovers her babies’ photographs, soggy and stuck together, agonizes over a dead sewing machine, mourns a once-vibrant pair of magnolia trees that have to be cut down, wrestles with the destruction of her personal library, rapidly molding in the September heat, and the treasured piano on which she learned to play hymns as a child. Throughout the account of loss, Sandra finds herself surrounded by hope and love.”