'God Spared Us'

With skies clearing as Hurricane Ida continued its catastrophic march northward, Judy Phillips, dodging fallen trees along the way, drove away from the house of her friend where she and her family had ridden out the storm.

But rather than check on her own home, she drove to St. Joseph Church in French Settlement, where she is a parishioner, to help mobilize relief efforts. Within hours water and MREs were being distributed and in the ensuing days thousands of meals, countless cases of water and hundreds of tarps would be distributed from Livingston to Maurepas and points in between.

“We had to clear (her friend’s) driveway of four trees before we could even leave,” Phillips said “Then we went straight to the church because we knew we would have to do whatever was needed.”

Unaware of the status of her own home, Phillips, a para-professional at French Settlement High School, called the boys’ basketball coach and team members, the  majority of whom are St. Joseph parishioners and belong to the parish’s youth group, immediately began volunteering. 

At one point, before supplies began to pour in, Phillips said volunteers started opening MREs and placing them in a big pot to cook. Phillips, a native of Acadiana, boasted with pride she “added a little Cajun touch and it was not that bad.”

“We just opened up (the parish hall) and whoever needed something to eat that night we were able to feed them,” she said. ”We did not have a lot that night but we had something. The first 72 hours we were on our own.”

Under the direction of St. Joseph pastor and savant disaster relief chef Father Jason Palermo, who orchestrated a similar effort during the flood of 2016, the parish, with the help of about 40 students, would ultimately serve more than 25,000 meals.
But it would be days before Phillips learned the condition of the family’s motor home.

“I had no idea if we were spared when I started helping but I had to continue to help,” she admitted. “It would not have mattered what happened there. There was nothing I could do (at) my house so I went (to the church).

“Whatever happened (at the house) had happened.”

Phillips’ husband and granddaughter eventually were able to get into their neighborhood, which sits on a small river near French Settlement, via a high water vehicle. What they found was that a neighbor’s tree had fallen and in the process taken with it the electrical box from the Philips’ mobile home. Ultimately, the family would be 19 days without electricity, including for four days after school resumed. 

The path to the mobile home, which was raised in 2016 after flood waters came within one-half inch of entering, was also blocked by fallen trees but Phillips was relieved none had landed on the house. 

“I’m not sure I deserve it but God helped,” Phillips said, tears filling her eyes as she sat in the kitchen of her home, enjoying the banter of her two granddaughters, who she adopted when they were 2 and six months old, as they chided each other about dinner and homework.

“I realized how quickly it can be taken away and how God once again spared us,” she added. 

Phillips also enlisted the aid of an initially reluctant London, her 16-year-old granddaughter, to helped deliver food to those in need.

“I was off of school and did not want to wake up early; I wanted to sleep in,” she said. “But they started letting me deliver and I looked forward to going.”

“I like to help people who need help,” she added. “I do that even if there is not a catastrophe.”

London recalled that on her way to Livingston she saw people living in a house where trees had fall on their roof. 

“I saw a tree had fallen on their car and assumed they could not go anywhere so I gave them six lunch plates,” she said.

Phillips, 60,  praised the entire St. Joseph community for  reaching out to many needy families. She has belonged to several churches in the past, including in Henderson and Breaux Bridge but said she’s never seen a parish in the way St. Joseph has.

“St. Joseph is a fantastic, fabulous church,” Phillips said, while also giving credit to Father Palermo. “He is a fabulous priest.”