Helene downgraded but not before causing massive flooding, major damage, several deaths

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (OSV News) -- By early evening Sept. 26, Hurricane Helene had garnered major hurricane status just before making landfall along the Florida Panhandle beginning late that night into Sept. 27.

Helene reportedly made landfall near the mouth of the Aucilla River with maximum sustained winds estimated at 140 mph and about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of where Hurricane Idalia came ashore last year at nearly the same ferocity and caused widespread damage, according to The Associated Press.

As Florida prepared for the massive Hurricane Helene to make landfall along the state's Gulf Coast the evening of Sept. 26, Bishop William A. Wack of Pensacola-Tallahassee livestreamed his personal reflection and prayer.

He encouraged people who had not evacuated to "find a safe spot and hunker down."

"The one good thing about this storm -- and there aren't many good things, it's a huge one, it's a monster of a storm -- is that it's going fast, 23, 25 miles an hour. That's what you want. You don't want it to linger over the land. You want it to move," he said during the livestream.

Florida's Gulf Coast and Panhandle regions were among those bracing overnight Sept. 26 for the powerful and dangerous Category 4 storm to make landfall in the Sunshine State as Catholic dioceses there canceled activities and activated emergency response plans.

Helene is being described as one of the largest storms in the Gulf of Mexico in the last century, with a wind field that could span roughly the distance between Indianapolis and Washington.

Extensive flooding has been reported around the southwest Florida-Gulf Coast regions well south of Hurricane Helene's landfall in the Big Bend area of the Florida Panhandle, including Naples, Fort Myers Beach, Sarasota, and northward along the St. Petersburg-Tampa Bay regions before impacting other states in the South, including Georgia and beyond.

By late afternoon Sept. 27, the huge storm was downgraded to a tropical depression by midafternoon. The New York Times reported that destruction from Helene stretched nearly 800 miles from South Florida into the mountains of Appalachia, where heavy rain triggered mudslides.

By midday Sept. 30, CNN reported that at least 115 people have died across six states and officials fear the death toll can rise. "Many more remain missing, perhaps unable to leave their location or unable to contact family where communications infrastructure is in shreds," CNN said."Hundreds of roads remain closed, especially in the Carolinas, hampering the delivery of badly-needed supplies. And more than 2 million customers remain without power."

Helene is being credited for breaking several storm surge records around the state of Florida, where parts of the Gulf Coast remained underwater.

The Diocese of St. Petersburg reported that along with coastal and bayside flooding, some residents in St. Petersburg have lost access to water and drainage/sewer systems because the Northeast Sewer Treatment Plant there was forced to shut down due to the storm.

The St. Petersburg Diocesan Hurricane Task Force had been in constant communication in the days leading up to and after the storm according to St. Petersburg Bishop Gregory L. Parkes, who decided to close all Catholic schools and Early Childhood Centers in Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties for the remainder of the week.

In the city of Tallahassee, where it was feared that the hurricane could leave considerable damage, the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More Parish reported on social media that it had power and that Masses would resume Friday evening, Sept. 27.

Helene's eyewall came ashore in what was a fairly rural area, according to Matthew F. Knee, president and CEO of Catholic Charities of Northwest Florida and a resident of the Panhandle since 2014.

"We have learned that each storm is different and they all bring different challenges," he added.
Knee was predicting that Helene could be one of the more memorable hurricanes of the last several years in a region that has seen more than a few hurricane and tropical storm landings recently.

He said 2018's Hurricane Michael set a new benchmark for damages, and that some local homes in Perry, Florida, are still undergoing repairs from 2023's Hurricane Idalia.

The dioceses of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Orlando, Venice, St. Augustine and St. Petersburg were among those Thursday already canceling Catholic schools and closing facilities in advance of Hurricane Helene, while emergency supplies were being staged in at least five regions of the Panhandle, according to Knee.

Based at the Northwest Florida Catholic Charities headquarters in Pensacola, Knee said he planned to ride out the storm there until it becomes safe to get out into the community to check on property and damages.

"My office will (then) be in my car for sure after we work out logistics and until after the storm passes, then start making the rounds to see what the needs are in the community," he told OSV News. "We rely heavily on the six other Catholic Charities chapters across the state and they all support each other during storms."

Catholic Charities USA and other local chapters across the nation have typically sent disaster operations case managers to Florida when local Catholic Charities staff have lost housing or otherwise been impacted by storms.

Parish drive-through distribution and volunteer coordination centers are likely to be set up at some local parishes in the Panhandle, fulfilling a crucial need as they did in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael.

After that storm, Catholic Charities of NW Florida helped orchestrate 600 home repairs, food distribution for 48 days straight, and managed 4,000 volunteers who logged a total of some 30,000 volunteer hours, Knee said. He added that online updates and social media platforms such as Facebook will play an important role in messaging in the coming days.

In Tallahassee, Gabe Tischler, emergency management specialist for Catholic Charities of Florida Inc., said he spent the afternoon of Sept. 26 placing orders for emergency supplies of food, water and generators to be situated across the Central and North Florida region with material support from the state of Florida and other emergency providers.

Florida's Big Bend region, where the state's panhandle transitions to the peninsula, "is home to some of the poorest areas in the state, with few personal resources, not many people have homeowners insurance," Tischler said, noting that agriculture, fishing and the timber industry are prevalent in the Panhandle.

"We often see that the cities get all the attention (during storms) and that the rural areas are neglected for financial and physical resources -- so Catholic Charities tries to make sure we fill those gaps that are not met by others," Tischler said.

A long list of reliable community partners are expected to be involved following Helene's landfall.

"We will be working with the Knights of Columbus -- they are on my list to call. It has always been a long-standing partnership and the Knights have stood up when we needed them," he told OSV News, adding that the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Compassionate Alliance and Catholic Charities USA were among those partners.

"As a Category 4, that's pretty rough," Bishop Wack said during his Sept. 26 livestream, speaking from Pensacola. "We expect that there will be property damage -- tens of thousands of trees down or broken off, and the landscape will be changed probably for decades, or a century … the beach and the Gulf Coast."

The diocese has already sent out at least four semi-trucks with water, meals ready to eat, tarps, generators, diapers and other supplies toward the coast, Bishop Wack said.

During his 19-minute livestream, Bishop Wack said that there are a couple of churches in the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee in the direct path of the storm "and that scares me a lot."

"The priests there thankfully have evacuated. I asked them to remove the Blessed Sacrament, blow out the (sanctuary lamp) candle, of course, and then to secure the church and go north or west," he said. "What we can do is pray. ... First of all, our prayers are especially that no one gets hurt and there is no loss of life throughout the whole United States."