According to the National Hurricane Center at NOAA, Hurricane Sally made landfall in the Gulf Shores, AL, area early this morning as a category 2 storm.
The storm had a minor impact in Jackson County, where St. John’s/Pascagoula and St. Pierre’s/Gautier are located.
Bishop Seage heard from most of the Coast clergy by 8:30 a.m. today. So far, the reports indicate little or no damage to Coast parishes. Clergy are busy contacting parishioners to check with any needs they may have.
Tom Fanning, rector of St. John’s/Pascagoula, said the church property, which was nearest to Hurricane Sally, sustained no damage. After driving through Gautier and Pascagoula, this reporter saw little effects of the storm outside of downed limbs. Floodwaters had receded along the beach. WLOX-TV news stated that Mississippi Power reported 2,500 outages in the area, a lot less than anticipated.
“We are grateful that our clergy and parishioners have come through Hurricane Sally well, and saddened by the hit taken in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast. We will be offering opportunities to help with recovery there. I plan to send out an appeal to aid both Central Gulf Coast and the Diocese of Western Louisiana,” Bishop Brian Seage said this afternoon in a telephone conversation.
The Rt. Rev. Russell Kendrick, bishop of the Diocese of Central Gulf Coast, was in touch with some clergy early Wednesday morning. Power outages had not affected cell service at that time. One priest in Gulf Shores, the Rev. Will Lowry, and family made it through the storm, but are still without power. Will is from Greenville, and served in the Diocese of Mississippi at Epiphany/Tunica.
Camp Beckwith needs
According to John Dreyfus, the Beckwith Camp and Conference center south of Fair Hope has many trees down. Dreyfuss is the operations manager of the facility.
Dreyfus said, "The camp is covered with tree debris, and we need manpower to remove it."
The camp can house many people, but as of this writing, there is no power on the property.
“We need generators, chainsaws, and anything to help with debris removal,” Dreyfus said.
Road access to Beckwith is being evaluated. The camp is about 20 miles south of I-10 at Exit 35-A.
“We hope to have an event at the camp on September 25-27. So, we’re ready to get work as soon as possible. We have a skeleton crew at Beckwith and need all the help we can get.
Call Dreyfus at 601-917-0794 if your parish wants to schedule a work crew to help Camp Beckwith. Please contact Scott Lenoir, the diocesan Disaster Preparedness and Response Team coordinator, when your group schedules a camp workday.
