Relief arrives in many forms as East Tennessee faithful support brothers and sisters in harm’s way

Catholic Charities, parishes, Legacy Clinic, Bishop Beckman assist at ground zero

By Bill Brewer

The people of upper East Tennessee near the North Carolina border are working to piece their lives back together amid the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene.

And the Catholic parishes of this region have joined together in leading disaster-relief efforts as communities suddenly found themselves without water, communications, basic necessities, and even roads to access critical assistance.

The disaster unfolded on Sept. 27 as Hurricane Helene blew northeastward after making landfall in the Florida panhandle. With high winds and dark clouds swollen with record amounts of rainfall, Helene unloaded on the mountains of western North Carolina, which sent torrents of water rushing down mountain tributaries and into the Nolichucky, Pigeon, Doe, and French Broad rivers that flow through East Tennessee.

Almost without warning, the rivers spilled over their banks and consumed everything in their path, including businesses, services, roads, bridges, and most heartbreakingly, residents.

The towns of Erwin, Newport, Mountain City, Hampton, and Greeneville in East Tennessee are still dealing with the devastation a month later. Rescue and recovery efforts have continued following the historic storm.

Interstate 40 at the Tennessee-North Carolina border was closed after the normally serene and picturesque Pigeon River turned into a raging rapid that ripped away part of the interstate. The Tennessee and North Carolina departments of transportation were reopening I-40 through the mountains, using only the two westbound lanes to handle eastbound and westbound traffic.

And part of Interstate 26, which connects the Tri-Cities at Johnson City to Asheville, N.C., also was washed away by the fierce, fast-moving currents of the Nolichucky River. The Tennessee Department of Transportation was able to reopen I-26 two weeks after Helene hit.

Construction on roads, bridges, and major arteries affected by the storm could take months, according to Department of Transportation officials.

The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency has confirmed 17 deaths from the East Tennessee flooding as of Oct. 17. The agency also reported that authorities were searching for missing residents after the disaster struck.

Bishop Mark Beckman of the Diocese of Knoxville visited the affected communities on Oct. 2 and met with parish pastors who are on the front line of disaster relief and who also are ministering to family members of loved ones who died in the floods or are missing, as well as flood survivors.

A profound impact

When Bishop Beckman arrived at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Erwin, Tenn., one of the hardest-hit areas, he was welcomed by a group taking part in grief counseling as they shared their experiences of being rescued from rapidly rising floodwaters, of anxiously awaiting word about missing loved ones, and of feeling the loss of loved ones who died.

“The two moments that have stayed with me most are the first moment when we walked into the church in Erwin, and we met this circle of the community there taking part in grief support. Watching the faces of those who have lost loved ones in the flood, those who have survived and witnessed what happened to people, and also those who are still missing loved ones who haven’t been found yet made a tremendous impact,” Bishop Beckman said.

“The immense grief and sadness in the room has remained with me. They are really traumatized. They need prayer. They need our support and love, and they need to know they are not alone in the journey ahead,” the bishop added.

“The second moment that was very heart-wrenching for me was the press conference where the people who are missing loved ones were holding up pictures of their missing family members and pleading with the authorities to help find them. You could really sense their desperation and their cries for help. They, too, need to know they are not alone. They are valued members of our community, and we will do whatever we can to help them,” he said.

Catholic Charities of East Tennessee, a Diocese of Knoxville ministry, has taken a lead role in disaster-relief efforts. The agency has been coordinating truckloads of water, food, baby food and other products for babies, personal hygiene items, and other necessities to the affected areas since Sept. 28. And it has dispatched Catholic Charities staff to the areas to assist with collection and distribution of resources as well as translation services for the Hispanic communities there.

Materials have reached the hardest-hit areas as residents awaited the resumption of water and power service.

The need for assistance will continue for some time as authorities and residents come to terms with the breadth of destruction.

“The scope of the damage is really unimaginable, especially if you haven’t been to a flood zone before. They have done significant clean-up work in the few days since the worst of it. The power of the water to move houses, to destroy bridges and interstates, is overwhelming. If you haven’t been to a flood area like that before, it really is unimaginable until you see it for yourself,” Bishop Beckman said.

Father Tom Charters, GHM, associate pastor of St. Michael the Archangel, and his community of volunteers have been leading rosary vigils and prayer services at the church and at Unicoi County High School in Erwin, which is serving as a shelter for those displaced by the disaster.

Father Charters has received critical support from the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus “Ad Gentes,” including Sister Esther Ordoñez and Sister Maria Luisa Morales, in ministering to the flood victims.

Bishop Beckman was joined on the visits to Erwin, Hampton, Elizabethton, and Johnson City by Father David Boettner, rector of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville, Deacon David Duhamel, executive director of Catholic Charities of East Tennessee, and Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, RSM, the physician who leads the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic for the Diocese of Knoxville.

In addition to reaching out to the communities and parishioners at St. Michael the Archangel, St. Elizabeth in Elizabethton, and St. Mary in Johnson City, Sister Mary Lisa assessed the St. Michael campus for the mobile medical clinic’s visit to St. Michael the Archangel on Oct. 11, where it provided free medical care to anyone in the flooded areas. The mobile clinic also gave medical care to people in Mountain City at St. Anthony of Padua Church on Oct. 11.

Catholic Charities of East Tennessee has created a disaster-relief donation page on its website, ccetn.org/donate/. The page also can be found on the Diocese of Knoxville webpage, dioknox.org. And the second collection in Masses at all diocesan churches the weekend of Oct. 5-6 was for flood relief in the region.

“We are seeing people who want to help, like those at Catholic Extension, and we have grant applications that we are working on with Catholic Charities USA and St. Vincent de Paul Society. When the state and federal governments issue disaster grants, we will be applying for those to help make sure we are serving all the people we need to,” Deacon Duhamel said.

In addition to destruction to homes, businesses, roads, and bridges, Deacon Duhamel noted that utilities in the impacted areas also were severely affected. Water and power operations were wiped out in several communities.

“The wastewater facilities have been the most urgent need in these communities because of the water situation. Five wastewater facilities were down, and seven water districts at one point were requiring boiled water,” Deacon Duhamel said.

Deacon Duhamel pointed out that all diocesan churches in upper East Tennessee have been accessible during the disaster. And also working with Catholic Charities of East Tennessee in responding to the flood victims have been Catholic Charities USA, St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Knights of Columbus, Ladies of Charity, and KDCCW volunteers.

Support is crucial

Their participation has been crucial as area priests reach out to the many people who continue to feel the effects of the flooding.

St. Michael the Archangel and Good Shepherd Parish in Newport have reported the deaths of several parishioners in the floods and others who have been missing. Flood survivors and the families of those who died and are missing are in vital need of spiritual, emotional, and financial support.

“They are dealing with the loss of lives and livelihood. Three main employers in the Erwin-Johnson City area were wiped out and destroyed. Businesses in Newport are flooded out. And homes in the low-lying areas also were affected and some destroyed,” Deacon Duhamel said.

St. Michael the Archangel, St. Mary Parish in Johnson City, Good Shepherd, and St. Anthony of Padua became distribution points for community flood relief.

Parishes throughout the Diocese of Knoxville solicited and collected donations of materials desperately needed in the flood zones. The Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga led efforts in the Chattanooga deanery to get much-needed supplies to upper East Tennessee. It was joined by several other parishes and schools, including St. John Neumann in Farragut and Sacred Heart. Sacred Heart Cathedral and School was a central donation point in the Smoky Mountain Deanery, where tractor-trailer loads of supplies were collected and thousands of dollars raised for those in need in the flood areas.

“We were able to fill two 53-foot trailers. The first tractor-trailer dropped off supplies at Good Shepherd Parish in Newport, St. Mary Parish in Johnson City, and St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Mountain City. We also collected over $30,000 in donations between the school and parish. We received donations until Oct. 8. That second truckload took donated items to Mountain City,” said Scott Barron, director of parish ministries for the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

“The drive went great. This was due in large part to the efforts of parish staffs, students, and volunteers. We had a tremendous team that welcomed everyone with a smile. Previously, we received donations in the hours following the Gatlinburg fires. So, we knew there would be a strong response. But the genuine concern and ‘what can I do’ attitude was just amazing,” Mr. Barron added.

“We did not just collect donations. We gave hope, not just to those in need, but to ourselves. Our community is wonderful and filled with people who wish to be the hands and feet of Jesus. This disaster just focused that desire. We partnered with St. Joseph School, St. John Neumann Parish and School, as well as Overbrook School in Nashville to achieve our goal of filling the trucks,” he observed.

Catholic Extension Society donated $10,000 for East Tennessee flood-relief efforts.

As of Oct. 17, Catholic Charities of East Tennessee had received more than $574,000 in donations for flood relief, including $350,000 from Catholic Charities USA.

Parish impact

While floodwaters have receded from Newport, where two parishioners of Good Shepherd died and two families belonging to the Cocke County parish were displaced and forced into temporary housing, Good Shepherd continues to be a distribution point for emergency-relief supplies. Father Pontian Kiyimba, AJ, parochial administrator of Good Shepherd and also St. Mary Parish in Gatlinburg, has been ministering to his community during the disaster and helping to coordinate relief efforts there.

In Greene County, where the water-distribution system and roadways took the biggest hit from the storm, truckloads of water from Catholic Charities helped alleviate a water shortage almost immediately after the storm.

Father Joseph Kuzhupil, MSFS, pastor of Notre Dame Parish in Greeneville, has been ministering to the Greene County community.

Father Jesús Guerrero, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua as well as St. Elizabeth in Elizabethton, and Deacon Joe Herman of St. Anthony of Padua have been leading ministerial and emergency-assistance efforts in Mountain City and Elizabethton. Deacon Herman, who operates a trucking company, has made his trucks available to deliver needed supplies to the stricken areas.

And Father Dustin Collins, pastor of St. Mary in Johnson City, has been overseeing his parish’s role as a key distribution point for disaster-relief supplies, joined by Father Michael Cummins, pastor of St. Dominic Parish in Kingsport, in coordinating disaster relief in Sullivan and Hawkins counties.

Bishop Beckman and Father Boettner are thankful for the community outreach by the Catholic parishes in the affected areas and to be a part of pastoral outreach to people in need of support.

“I was grateful to be able to go with the team from Catholic Charities, our mobile medical clinic, and our bishop and be pastorally present with the people in those communities who are hurting. It was inspiring to see our Bishop Mark as he met with and prayed with the families who have lost loved ones in the flood in Erwin. Their pastor, Father Tom Charters, is just doing an amazing job,” Father Boettner said. “Everywhere we went with Father Charters, every person in Erwin knows Father Tom and was consoled by his presence no matter where we were.”

Father Boettner also noted the importance of being at Unicoi County High School in Erwin, which has served as a shelter, and in being a ministerial presence to those who are hurting because their homes and places of work have been destroyed, as well as to the volunteers serving at the shelter.

“As the recovery efforts go forward, they are still finding groups of people who were separated by the flooding and are now being reunited with family members. Sadly, there were at least four fatalities in Erwin and still seven missing,” Father Boettner noted. “It was heartbreaking to see the pain and suffering that those families are going through and the uncertainty that they are experiencing right now.”

Weather forecasts tracked Hurricane Helene as it made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds and torrential rain. As it barreled inland, it wreaked havoc in parts of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. Its path of devastation covered 500 miles. The hurricane is being called the second deadliest to hit the contiguous United States, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and is responsible for more than 200 deaths.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the hurricane and an unremarkable rainstorm that preceded it dumped more than 40 trillion gallons of precipitation over the Southeast the last week of September. Some 30 inches of rain fell in the East Tennessee-western North Carolina area.

The steep topography of western North Carolina and upper East Tennessee and the picturesque gorges that define the area contributed to the ferocious funneling of water into the lower-lying areas.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has declared Carter, Cocke, Greene, Hamblen, Hawkins, Johnson, Unicoi, Washington, Jefferson, and Sevier counties in East Tennessee as federal disaster areas, which makes them eligible for federal funding and support. In response to Hurricane Helene, FEMA said it has provided about $300 million in federal assistance to impacted states. In Tennessee, FEMA has received at least 2,500 applications for disaster assistance. And the agency says its teams are on the ground in the impacted counties.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced on Oct. 10 the Helene Emergency Assistance Loans (HEAL) Program, which is a $100 million fund to directly serve people in the affected Tennessee counties.

As reports of the devastation began to circulate and images of the flood-damaged areas populated news coverage and social media platforms, people were inspired to volunteer their assistance. And the National Guard was deployed in the flooded counties to assist with rescue and recovery efforts.

In addition to the response from Diocese of Knoxville faithful and other faith-based organizations in the region, East Tennesseans like country music artists Morgan Wallen and Dolly Parton have led fundraising efforts that provided millions of dollars in assistance to upper East Tennessee.

“The hopeful thing is at the same time we were visiting all those impacted communities, people throughout East Tennessee were bringing supplies of water, food, and donations of cash to help those communities. So, we were able to assure them that they are not forgotten and that they are united with us not only in prayer but also in the fellowship that is reaching out to be the hands and feet of Christ in those devastated communities,” Father Boettner said.