Archbishop Aymond visits Northshore, Catholic Charities on the move; the great flood of 2016

Beginning Thursday evening and not stopping all day Friday the rains fell.  Not just rain, torrential rain.  Areas received over 20 inches of rain overnight.  Coupled with strong southerly winds that push water into every lake, river and tributary and water flowing down from the north, where those folks got battered Tuesday through Thursday and there was no where for water to go.  Almost every river in the civil parishes of St. Tammany, Washington and Tangipahoa have hit historic high levels.  It's been bad.  We will remember this flood of 2016.

For the Catholic Church in and of New Orleans this has been bad; very bad.  Besides the many parishioners who are impacted personally, we have seen major damage to some pretty important places of worship.  Beautiful St. Joseph Abbey and their minor seminary named for St. Benedict flooded extensively.  Student seminarians had no where to escape as the seminary has one small bridge in and out of the facility.  In a manner of moments, the bridge was inundated.  Every dorm, every residence and every working building flooded.  The historic and beautiful Abbey Church did not flood although some equipment areas that support the church did have water.  Up in Bogalusa the only parish with a school took on water too.  Annunciation School saw flooding but thankfully the Church stayed dry. 

This afternoon our own Archbishop Aymond came to the Northshore.  He first met with many volunteers and parishioners at St. Peter's in Covington.  While that campus was high and dry this parish has numerous parishioners with water damage.  The Archbishop then went up to the Abbey and met with the monks, employees and seminarians.  Later, he made his way to Bogalusa and offered Mass at Annunciation Parish.  Word is that our Catholic Charities is ramped up and is offering much help and hope.  Catholics on the Northshore are incredibly generous and response will be forthcoming.

Here is Archbishop Aymond's Facebook post from earlier today:

Archbishop Gregory Aymond added 9 new photos.

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Today I toured much of the Northshore. These are some pictures of the damage at St. Ben. I also went to Bogalusa and celebrated the Vigil mass. They were hit very hard. Hundreds of homes flooded. Camp Abbey is greatly affected. Catholic Charities is on the run helping people. Please join me in prayer for those who have to rebuild their homes.

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