New Talavana farm community in Mississippi, USA, and ISKCON New Orleans were spared from any substantial damage from weather conditions related to Hurricane Isaac. New Talavana received about 14 inches of rain. The devotees were without electricity and water for 36 hours. Mr. Gilliout, a neighbor and friend, gave the temple a 50,000 watt diesel generator with 100 gallons of diesel. The community used it to power the kitchen and the temple. Although the generator to power the temple well during an electrical outage worked, but since the control box for the pump broke there was no water in the building.

Two cabins were damaged. One simply lost the stack for the electric wires coming into the cabin. The damage on the other cabin is more serious. Two huge hundred year old water oak trees that were growing together split and fell. One fell away from the cabin tearing down the electric box and pulling some wood off. The other tipped into a wall of the cabin and pushed a hole into the attic. Unfortunately, one of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples had just moved there. Ramakeli Dasa who is suffering from stage 4 liver cancer had moved into the tree damaged cabin just days before the storm. His oldest son Narottam had spent days and nights renovating it.

The cow and deity programs were unharmed at New Talavana.

The Good Karma Cafe in Gulfport and Ocean Springs have opened today for the first time this week and the Bhakti Caravan devotional band has a fund rasing engagement in Tuscaloosa tonight, Mobile Saturday and Pensacola Sunday to raise funds for Good Karma # 3 in New Orleans.

ISKCON New Orleans temple has been without electrical power since Tuesday. They have one generator that provides some lights. The devotees did not evacuate and are faithfully serving the temple deities. The temple suffered some roof damage. It is temporarily covered and apparently will be covered by insurance.