The One Two Punch: Catholic Charities of Acadiana’s Response to Hurricanes Laura & Delta
The year that was 2020 will forever be remembered as one of great personal and communal strife. Acadiana quickly realized the effects of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020; seeing the already damaged economy come to a standstill as schools and businesses closed in short order. Thousands of jobs were lost, many almost overnight. Calls to the Monsignor Sigur Center, a program of Catholic Charities of Acadiana that assists individuals who are experiencing a situational crisis, grew by the day: On a normal day, staff would receive 50 to 60 phone calls for rent and utility assistance, while the March 2020 numbers were over 250 phone calls per day from Acadiana residents who had nowhere else to turn for help. In terms of food relief, there were and still are, so many South Louisiana families and individuals who are making the daily decision between paying bills and putting food on the table, often for the very first time in their lives. Even for seasoned disaster planners, this was an event no one had planned for, and as it turned out, a disaster that compounded its effects as the days moved on.
August 27, 2020 was a Thursday. Just four years earlier, South Louisiana had experienced catastrophic flooding that left a wide swath of destruction from Acadiana to Baton Rouge. Catholic Charities of Acadiana Disaster Response and Rebuilding Together Acadiana, both programs of Catholic Charities of Acadiana, had recently finished its final flood damaged home a few weeks prior. This was par for the course with long term recovery in disaster: often referred to as a marathon, disaster recovery tends to stretch out years past when the initial story leaves the public eye or media lens.
On that particular Thursday night in August, an already disaster weary South Louisiana hunkered down and braced for what turned out to be the largest and strongest hurricane to ever make landfall in South Louisiana. Hurricane Laura came ashore in rural Cameron Parish and left hundreds of thousands out of power, stunned, and in dire need of assistance.
“Having lived through my own Catholic Charities response to Hurricane Katrina and Rita, I knew that the directly impacted area would need almost immediate assistance from the outside,” said Kim Boudreaux, CEO of Catholic Charities of Acadiana. “When you get hit that hard, it has the tendency to take you out altogether.”
Catholic Charities of Acadiana sister agency in Lake Charles is run by Sister Miriam MacLean, a Religious Sister of Mercy from Alma, Michigan. Kim and Sister Miriam traveled to survey the damage shortly after and realized that the area had a variety of needs that Catholic Charities and its disaster network could assist with.
“There was so much debris. It was everywhere. Rooftops were either severely damaged or completely blown off in every direction,” said Boudreaux. “Power was out across the entire region, adding insult to injury during the hottest month of the year and making communication nearly impossible. We knew that debris removal and applying tarps to rooftops would be our primary initial focus.”
Herein lies the problem: Disaster disproportionately affects those who are in poverty. Many are thrust deeper into poverty because of a lack of resources, family or other supportive relationships, savings accounts, or other safety nets. This major storm, coupled with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, targeted those on the margins. Catholic Charities of Acadiana deeply involved in preparing for and responding to disaster in Acadiana for this very reason.
Almost as fast as Hurricane Laura left, Catholic Charities of Acadiana disaster teams were assembled, trained, and deployed to assist stricken areas between Acadia and Cameron Parishes. Some volunteers brought equipment, while most came with open and willing hearts, ready to dive into a developing relief effort. Catholic Charities of Acadiana’s Disaster Response and Rebuilding Together Acadiana teams worked seven days a week through assessment, direct response, and managing the sometimes overwhelming influx of donations. Volunteer assistance through this natural disaster was vital but complex, seeing that the novel coronavirus was still a large threat, challenges that we continue to face.
The thing is, that wasn’t all. 2020 wasn’t done yet.
Websters dictionary defines the word disbelief as the inability or refusal to accept that something is true or real. On Friday October 9th, a strong category 2 Hurricane Delta made landfall roughly 13 miles east of where Hurricane Laura did just over a month prior.
Many would say that the next day eliminated any disbelief as to the amount of mettle South Louisiana had left in a year full of disasters.
By this time, the network of Acadiana organizations active in disaster were already in full swing, each knowing their role and their function. Having a plan in place proved important as disaster can wear down on a person, especially the prolonged experience of response to such significant devastation on physical buildings but also on the human heart. Catholic Charities of Acadiana assembled disaster teams of volunteers and deployed them throughout Acadiana and beyond, while other organizations did their part: For example, Second Harvest Food Bank assisted in perishable and non-perishable food donation management and meal production and distribution through its partnership with Catholic Charities of Acadiana in St. Joseph Diner. United Way of Acadiana assisted in volunteer recruitment and donation management. There are so many others involved, each knowing what they did best and selflessly executing for the greater good of the community.
A worldwide pandemic and two major hurricanes. All in seven months.
Along with its partners, Catholic Charities of Acadiana is continuing to respond to the needs of those who have suffered at the hands of Hurricanes Laura and Delta. To date, they have touched over five hundred homes between Lafayette and Lake Charles. With over 1,200 requests for assistance between both storms, Catholic Charities of Acadiana expects to be responding in long term recovery for years to come. “It comes as a surprise to many when they find out that there are still open long term recovery cases for Hurricane Katrina,” said Boudreaux. “Long term recovery is a true marathon effort. It’s not glorious. It’s expensive. It often requires specialized construction and repair skills, where the initial response didn’t. This is usually our lane as Catholic Charities, being one of the last organizations working until the final house is completed. This is just what we do.”
There is still so much to be done in responding to the disasters of 2020. Help Catholic Charities of Acadiana respond by making a tax-deductible donation today by clicking here.