Tornado Relief for the Castellanos Burke Family

April 4th, 2022:

The Castellanos Burke family has asked me to post an update about the funeral arrangements for Maria Celeste Burke. These are as follows:

Friday, April 8th at St. Bernard Memorial Funeral Home & Gardens,
701 W. Virtue Street, Chalmette LA 70043
(504)-279-6376

Visitation from 10:00 am-2:00 pm
Service at 2:00 pm
Burial at 3:00 pm


April 2nd, 2022:  

Story from WWL:

Woman who died after tornado hit her Arabi home remembered as beacon of love positivity Maria Celeste Burke lives on through the people she loved 


APRIL 1st, 2022:

It is with great sadness that I write of the death of Maria Celeste Burke at UMC in New Orleans from a blood clot early yesterday evening. 

Many of this fundraiser's generous donors have been aware of the family's desperate situation since the tornado destroyed their home last week, and today, many friends, family members, and local donors to this page will have already read the tragic news of her death on Nola.com or elsewhere. 

Despite living with muscular dystrophy for many years and suffering injuries from the recent tornado, Maria's death was very sudden and unexpected. Doctors had been discussing Maria's discharge only the day before, and specialists had even measured her for a new wheelchair. She saw her mother Dea around lunchtime, and was with Steven and their friend afterwards, talking and playing video games.  A little later she felt less well and was having trouble breathing. 

The Castellanos Burke family wishes to thank you all for your support and good wishes, your generous donations, and now sadly for your condolences too. Instead of paying for her funeral, they wished these funds could have gone towards making Maria's life easier, buying the van wheelchair lift that she was so excited about having again, and replacing her medical equipment lost in the tornado. 

On behalf of Dea, Jimmy, Steven, Massiel, Aaron, and Karina, thank you all for your kind messages and continued support. The family is understandably devastated and still processing this sad news. I will continue to forward e-mails sent via this platform to Karina who is with them providing enormous comfort and support. The family will make funeral arrangements within the next week. 


________________________

In what press reports have dubbed a "Wizard of Oz ride", the Castellanos Burke Family lost their home on Prosperity Street in a matter of seconds, and their special needs daughter Maria Celeste remains within the ICU after surgery to treat her injuries from being inside an enormous multi-vortex tornado. 

MANY thanks to so many of you who have donated to this fundraiser. The Castellanos Burke family is very grateful to every one of you who have contributed, and to those who are considering donating. They fear that they are facing enormous medical bills as Maria Celeste HAS NO HEALTH INSURANCE OR MEDICAID.

Thank you to those who have messaged me asking for clarification on this. As a Dreamer (DACA recipient), Maria has been turned down for Medicaid twice, but is still hoping. Children’s Hospital stopped covering her care in November after she turned 22 (amazingly she has not seen her specialist since this time!). They are also unsure if the hospital will set her up with medical equipment, but to leave there she must have the following:

1) Ventilator; 2) Oxygen Machine; 3) Suction Machine; 4) Cough Assist; 5) Tracheotomy Materials (like gauze, suction catheters); 6) Motorized Wheelchair (fitted for her size; 7) Van with Lift (they only had liability and uninsured motorists. With the tornado, they lost all modes of transportation); 8) Place to Live; 9) Furniture 

To those who've messaged me, I've forwarded your kind advice and resources to the family, and hope that aside from injures Maria suffered in the tornado, she can secure medical assistance to cover her regular monthly disability needs so that monies raised in this fundraiser can go towards rent, wheelchair, van with lift, etc. If anyone can share this page, I would be very grateful — THANK YOU!

On Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022 shortly after 7:00 pm, the vast minimum EF3-level tornado left the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans to wreak havoc two miles further downriver in the neighborhood of Arabi, Lousiana. The tornado lifted the Castellanos Burke family home from its cinderblocks, spun it around like clothes in a tumble dryer, then dropped it to earth again 20-feet away. It is a miracle they are alive.

Dea, her husband Jimmy, their daughter Maria Celeste, and Maria's boyfriend Steven had all just eaten dinner. Dea and Jimmy were watching television on the sofa, and Maria and Steven were in the bedroom. They heard the emergency warning alert, then in few seconds their lives were blown apart. Dea was hurled into another room, and Maria was thrown to the floor.

After the house landed back to earth Dea and Jimmy heard Maria calling, trapped under furniture within what remained of their home. Neighbors helped to rescue Maria, and once first responders arrived she was rushed to ER where they discovered some internal bleeding. Maria remains in hospital, recovering from surgery.

Luckily their other daughter Massiel and little grandson Aaron were elsewhere, and are both safe and sound.  

The family is devastated, obviously in shock, and their material losses are vast.

 

Maria Celeste is a talented artist, loves to draw cartoons, and be creative with makeup. She is also very brave -- living day to day wheelchair bound, and suffering from muscular dystrophy. Maria is on a ventilator and oxygen machine 24/7, has a tracheotomy, and must take great care that others do not expose her to microbes and viruses. 

 

With Maria's condition, a bad cold can be more than just unpleasant, it can be dangerous, so Maria's family and friends take care to wash their hands regularly and even change clothes before seeing her. The Covid-19 pandemic has been hard enough for this family, but now they have lost their home, most of their belongings, and much of Maria's expensive medical equipment. 

 

The family's dogs Rocco and Benji are alive and okay, as are their chihuahuas Bella, Sasha, and Finn. But Dea's numerous and much loved chickens, doves, and parakeets are missing, wounded, or dead. She has always been generous with fresh eggs, bringing them to all friends who express interest in taking some. But now the bodies of many of her birds lie strewn among the wreckage of the family's house and garage. 

 

The day after the tornado, one injured and now homeless chicken sought shelter in a twisted drawer of clothes covered in insulation from where the ceiling fell in, and one of Dea's parakeets clung to the branch of a small tree nearby, no doubt wondering where its friends and home had gone. 

Dea has always loved birds, and after the tornado, many of her china ornaments lay in broken pieces all over the kitchen floor, thrown from her wooden kitchen cabinets just like the contents of their fridge and freezer, or the dinner they didn't have time to put away. 

 

It was almost impossible to find plates, glasses, dishes, or ornaments that hadn't been broken or chipped. It all happened so quickly. As Dea told a newspaper reporter the next day: "...appreciate what you have today, because tomorrow it might be gone."

 

The family had no rental or disaster insurance. They don't know which of Maria's medical equipment they can salvage or whether Maria's special wheelchair will work again. Jimmy's car with the wheelchair lift is wrecked. Several of their cell phones were smashed. They didn't know under which wall or floor precious possessions were trapped, or the location of even basic, necessary household items like sheets or pillows. 

 

Will their dented washing machine or dryer still work when plugged into power outlets? They don't know where those power outlet will be, because they don't yet know where they will live. Recreating a home from scratch is a very daunting process.

Neither Easy nor Prosperous

The Castellanos Burke family home remained where it landed for almost a week, blocking access along Prosperity from Easy Street until yesterday, when it was bulldozed. The day after the tornado, friends and neighbors climbed over the yellow police lines to help save as many sentimental possessions and clothes as possible, also what little furniture that survived and could be "safely" removed, plus a few precious old photographs, but MUCH has been permanently lost or destroyed. What the family could not salvage from this highly unstable and dangerous structure had to be condemned along with the remains of their home. 

 

Until they can find another home, Dea, Jimmy, and Steven are staying with family member Mariam Karina Contreras, who is receiving funds for the family raised here on this GoFundMe page. You may also donate via the Venmo account @MKCP-1022.

Any donation is massively appreciated by the Castellanos Burke family as they have immediate and very pressing needs. Please, please SHARE this page, be generous if you can -- even if just a dollar -- because in times like these, every penny counts. THANK YOU.

Thank you also to the hardworking reporters below for your articles and videos helping to spread the word about this disaster:

Girl in wheelchair rescued from Arabi home that tornado heaved into road in Wizard of Oz ride 

Girl on breaching machine saved after tornado moved her home 

New Orleans tornado lifts family and their home into the air in ‘Wizard of Oz ride’ 

Tornado in Arabi Leaves Family Homeless 

Girl on breathing machine saved after tornado moved her home 

 

Girl in wheelchair rescued from Arabi home

 

Girl survives tornado that dropped house