Catholic Charities Active in Assisting Ida Victims

Mary Feathers was sporting a nifty grin as she prepared to board a Greyhound bus, the first step on the final leg of what had been a harrowing two-week journey that briefly landed her on the streets of Baton Rouge. 

Joining Feathers in the bus depot but headed in an opposite direction was Oscar Jones, a resident of New Orleans who eventually found himself in the shelter at the Raising Cane’s River Center. Jones was  heading to Houston to rejoin his brother. 

“I’m so glad (to be out of the shelter),” Jones said. “Clothes, TV, everything was ruined (in his New Orleans home). The roof was taken off, and all the water came into the apartment with wind damage.”

Feathers and Jones were just two of nearly 200 disaster case management cases Catholic Charities of Baton Rouge opened in the first 10 days following Hurricane Ida’s Aug. 29 landfall. The case work has varied, from finding transportation or even gas cards for those trying to return home or to relatives, to distributing diapers, food and canes to the elderly or to relocating families to non-congregate shelters, such as hotels through FEMA’s transitional assistance program.  

Additionally, the agency delivered or distributed 4,265 items in eight church parishes with an estimated culminative value of $360,000 during that same time frame, and those numbers have only continued to rise, according to CCDBR Executive Director David Aguillard.  

Feathers was certainly appreciative of the assistance of CCDBR case worker Cheryl Strickland, who helped the Mississippi native find some hope in the darkest of times. Shortly before Hurricane Ida made its unwelcome arrival in Louisiana, Feathers, a resident of Oliver, Tennessee, had arrived in New Orleans on a contract job organizing wires for a large company. But when Ida hit, team members from the company brought her to a shelter in Slidell and abruptly left her. 

Eventually she landed in Baton Rouge and shortly after was sleeping in a truck off of Florida Boulevard.

She entered the River Center shelter and quickly met Strickland, who is displaced from her New Orleans’ home because of damage from Ida. Less than 24 hours later, Feathers was homeward bound.

“(Strickland) has saved me,” Feathers said. “I am totally gratefully to Catholic Charities; you have no idea. Nobody can wipe the smile off of my face.

“(The case workers) are working hard and trying their best to help people.”

Assistance also arrived from Catholic Charities of Southwest Louisiana in Lake Charles, which a year ago received help from CCDBR when Hurricane Laura devastated that area, a region that remains in recovery mode. Sister Miriam MacLean RSM helped deliver a truckload of supplies that included tarps, water, food bags, paper towels and diapers to St. Margaret Queen of Scotland Church in Albany and a mission church in Hammond, a relief effort coordinated by Holy Family Church in Port Allen pastor Father Ryan Hallford, who also spearheaded CCDBR’s response to Lake Charles in 2020. 

“I think the people were feeling a little bit forgotten not because the church was not responding,” Sister Miriam said. “They were grateful for the church’s response and the presence of the priest and you could see how hopeful that was for them. You could see their appreciation.

“They were thanking God because there are not a lot of other people there.”

She said the areas she visited in the Albany and Hammond-Ponchatoula areas were some of the hardest hit in southeast Louisiana. She believes people need to understand many areas in the Diocese of Baton Rouge sustained significant damage.

“I think it’s definitely an important message; it was a reality,” she said.

Sister Marian acknowledged the road back for those areas is long, as it is for her own Lake Charles, but for now it’s about getting electricity turned on, stabilizing families and finding ways to allow people to return to their homes or at least in a few rooms in their homes.

She also admitted witnessing the carnage was an all-too familiar scene from Laura’s aftermath.

“That’s the hard part,” Sister Mariam said. “For us, things are improved in Lake Charles but we still have a long way to go, which is why we really feel for the people here. Recovery is long from a storm like this.”

The experience was humbling and left her in awe of God’s power and nature but also touched her spiritually. 

“I feel like I came to a much better understanding and devotion of God’s providence, how he is to his people, how well he provides and how (when) we responded with a generous and faith heart he responded with a generous heart,” she said. “We bring so little to the table and he brings so much.”

“I pray that this experience for those most impacted by an experience of a deepening of faith, a deepening of assurance of the Lord’s presence with them,” she added. “I hope you never see another storm like that.”

Aguillard said the agency continues to field calls from those in need, as well as assessing the needs of CCDBR’s immigrant clients. 

Anyone wishing to donate or volunteer should visit ccdiobr.org.