This is one of them! The following is a letter I got from a friend who has a son working as an archivist photographer, photographing records for the Church's genealogical records. Currently he was photographing in New Orleans. This is his story:

Let me tell you about my son Chuck who works for the Church and has been working in New Orleans. As you know, Chuck is a "records photographer" for the Church. He photographs vital records archived in various locations- these are used for genealogical research and are available at Family History Centers around the world. For the past few years he has been filming the records in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, State Archives. He also helps missionary photographers throughout the southern states.

The Church has wanted to film the New Orleans parish records for quite some time but has not been granted permission to do them until after the scare the parish archivists had when hurricane Lilly threatened the records two years ago.

So, Chuck made arrangements to film those records and was given a work area in the 2nd lower level of the basement of the New Orleans library. This was a handy location because this was in the same room that old records were stored. The room had rows and rows of vital records of births, deaths, marriages, etc., going back 400 years to the founding of the city of New Orleans. This was, of course, in the 2nd basement down-all underground. When Katrina hit, Chuck was at his home in Denham Springs, LA., but his equipment, camera, and other things were left in the basement of the library with the records.

My wife was able to establish a phone connection with him fairly soon after the hurricane so we knew that Chuck and his family were safe. However, it was about this same time that the flooding of New Orleans came to the attention of the nation. Chuck had no way of knowing about the condition of the library. He studied aerial photos of the building; he talked to the State archivists; he watched the news; every piece of evidence indicated that the records and the church's equipment were all destroyed.

Chuck and I joked about him having to go scuba diving to recover the camera-- maybe it would be repairable. A few days ago two of the New Orleans archivists were allowed into the Library to assess the damage. Much to their surprise the basements were totally dry. They e-mailed Chuck and said "You won't believe this but the basements are dry and your equipment is okay." They are wanting him back in a hurry-- They could have lost everything to Katrina. Chuck then called the State archives to report the news. Their response "No way, that's impossible, it can't be true."

According to Chuck, the only major damage to the library in New Orleans was that some people had broken into the building for a shelter but they hadn't taken anything nor had they been malicious. No one seems to know how the water was held back, but all agree that it was miraculous. I don't believe it was by accident.

It seems that the Lord has protected the vital records of New Orleans for centuries-even up to today. The damage to some of the church's meetinghouses can be replaced. 400 years of records cannot. It is for a very important purpose that those records be made available to the descendants of those lived there in by-gone years.

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