St. James Parish fares ‘pretty well’ from Hurricane Ida

After Hurricane Ida made its way through Louisiana via Port Fourchon on Aug. 29, the Category 4 storm remained “organized,” according to a forecaster with the National Weather Service office in Slidell. By  the time it had reached St. James Civil Parish, some 87 miles away, Ida was still at hurricane strength as a Category 2. “The main damage we’re facing is wind damage to roofs,” said Father Matthew  McCaughey, pastor of the cluster parishes of St. James Church in St. James and Our Lady of Peace Church and St. Philip Church, both in Vacherie. “We had some of our metal awnings and metal coverings ripped off. With roof damage we did have some water intrusion, so we do have some mold growth in a couple of our buildings in the cluster.” Other damage, said Father McCaughey, included a few downed trees and large branches, but none hit any of the buildings. And he noted there was chaos in the aftermath of the storm, with no power or cell phone service. “But, I guess we did fare pretty well, all things considered,” he said. Father McCaughey said he spent the night of the storm at the rectory of St. James Church while parochial vicar Father John Vu had traveled to Baton Rouge to stay with his parents. A windowless chapel in the rectory offered a peaceful sanctuary where Father McCaughey said he spent “long periods of time praying.” But as the full impact of the storm passed over the area, Father McCaughey said there was quite a bit of destruction because of the strength of the almost 90 mile-per-hour winds. At one point during the height of the storm, Father McCaughey said a sheriff’s deputy stopped at the church and had his patrol car door ripped open by the high winds and “he couldn’t close the door so he took refuge in my rectory for three or four hours.” “And all the while, there was water coming through windows, water coming in from the vents because as it turned out, all the vents were ripped off the rectory, so I had water dripping down where the vents are and I found out I had a major hole in my roof at St. James so I had water dripping in my bedroom, quite a lot of water so that was the craziest,” said Father McCaughey. Also, St. James is the only church in the cluster with carpets so Father McCaughey was busy working to remove wet carpets after the storm. The following day, Father McCaughey and Father Vu left St. James to check on residents in Vacherie. He said downed power lines shut down a major highway so they got as close as they could, then caught a ride with a parishioner into the area and rode bikes through the area. “We visited some of the communities and there was just a lot of roof damage and a couple of families had significant roof damage that really made their house unlivable,” he said. “We did see a couple of families in that situation and some other families had major tree damage, making their houses unlivable. Most parishioners did well, all things considered because it was a direct hit.” Father McCaughey said there are more than 40 large oak trees, many of them more than 100 years old, at St. James Church and only one tree lost a large branch. Also, a few years ago, a generator had been installed at the church so power was not lost and Mass was celebrated there the Sunday after the storm.  St. James Church has also hosted funerals from Our Lady of Peace and St. Philip. “We were actually able to service a local Baptist community, one of the ministers died and we actually had his funeral at St. James, with the permission from the diocese, and we were able to have a Baptist funeral at St. James. I thought it was kind of like the neighborly thing to do in this situation,” said Father McCaughey.  Mass schedules at both Our Lady of Peace and St. Philip remained the same the weekend after the storm, with Father McCaughey celebrating Mass on the front steps of the church as parishioners stayed in their cars and listened to the service on the radio. It was the same protocol used during the shutdown for COVID-19. But electricity was restored by the following weekend. Father McCaughey said parishioners from St. Aloysius Church in Baton Rouge and Holy Rosary Church in St. Amant, along with other Catholic organizations from other dioceses and Texas, have come to serve hot meals at the churches.  “We’re very appreciative of all the groups that came to support us,” said Father McCaughey.