Nobody loves a parade of storms

DENISE O’TOOLE KELLY | FLORIDA CATHOLIC STAFF

Published: 09.03.08

CNS | LEE CELANO, REUTERS
A street at a railroad crossing near the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal is flooded as Hurricane Gustav hits New Orleans Sept. 1. The center of Hurricane Gustav came ashore as a Category 2 hurricane near Cocodrie, La., Sept. 1.

ORLANDO | With flooding and relief efforts ongoing from last month’s Tropical Storm Fay, worries mounting for brethren in Louisiana from this week’s Hurricane Gustav — and Hanna, Ike and Josephine lining up precariously in the Atlantic — the coordinator of Florida’s Catholic disaster response network had an observation to share on Wednesday, Sept. 3.

“It has been non–stop the last day or so,” said Deacon Marcus Hepburn, emergency management specialist for the Florida Catholic Conference and coordinator for Catholic Charities of Florida, the agency through which the state’s diocesan Catholic Charities jointly respond to natural calamities.

At the time Deacon Hepburn sent his e–mail to the Florida Catholic state office in Orlando Wednesday afternoon, Hanna was a tropical storm and was expected to intensify to a hurricane and skirt the state’s east coat before making landfall in Georgia or the Carolinas early Saturday. But it still had to be watched closely.

“Hanna is too close to call as to whether and to what extent Florida will be affected. Needless to say, the upper east Coast will feel tropical storm–force winds and rain,” Deacon Hepburn said.

Meanwhile, it was too far to call whether Tropical Storms Ike and Josephine’s paths would pose any danger to Florida.

What was clear, though, was that Hurricane Gustav was posing challenges for relief workers in Louisiana and Mississippi, including representatives of Catholic Charities U.S.A., and that Tropical Storm Fay was still haunting Floridians.

“Baton Rouge took major hit in regard to trees and power lines are down,” Deacon Hepburn said, relaying information from Greg Patin, a former Louisiana Catholic Charities disaster coordinator who is now director of Catholic Charities in Jackson, Miss. Patin said communication was difficult and about 14,000 people were in 108 shelters in Baton Rouge. The Houma–Thibodaux Diocese was worst hit.

As for the aftereffects in Florida from Tropical Storm Fay, a 10 a.m. state report showed major flooding continued on the St. Johns River near Lake Harney, and major flooding could occur in Sanford and DeLand by midweek in the Diocese of Orlando. Also, Lake Okeechobee continued to rise in the wake of Fay. Nearly 600 flooding evacuees remained in a shelter in Lee County in the Diocese of Venice.

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