From carrying mattresses to the street to passing out supplies, from sloshing through mud in rain boots to climbing scaffolding in heels, from telephone calls asking for information to conversations of listening to people’s stories, the staff of the Catholic Pastoral Center have had an interesting few weeks.

When Hurricane Ike swept ashore Sept. 13, most people knew that their lives, and their work, would be disrupted and adjustments made. Many people didn’t have work the first week either because they were gone due to the mandatory evacuation or their place of business was closed. Whichever it was, it was definitely not business as usual. For many of the staff of the Diocese of Beaumont who were in town they knew their jobs and ministries were not business as usual.

The Monday after the storm some of the buildings at the Catholic Pastoral Center had electricity. Several staff members gathered including Bishop Curtis J. Guillory, SVD, Msgr. Michael Jamail, vicar general, and Charley Messina, construction consultant.

After a short meeting Bishop Guillory decided he wanted to see the area first hand and left to tour Orange County with a group of staff that included Laura Williams, chief financial officer, and Sarah Dupre and Karen Gilman, East Texas Catholic staff members. This began what became daily trips by staff to the parishes and missions across the diocese to check on damage and offer support to the religious and parishioners.

Williams spent hours and miles personally visiting many of the churches and pastors across the diocese, working to assess damage. Gilman and Dupre traveled with her many times, documenting the damage with photos and writing stories of the storm and the beginning of recovery.

In addition to her regular duties, Williams work was very diverse – from working to accumulate information to begin plans to repair the damages to hands on activities of helping move a mattress to the side of the road in Bridge City and climbing the scaffolding to the very, very top of St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica, Beaumont.

But things were not all quiet on the home front at the Pastoral Center. Phone calls were made to all parishes, contacting the pastor or secretary to begin accumulating information that was needed including cancelled and rescheduled events and trees down on the property.

Two companies were hired to remove trees and as of Oct. 3 they were almost complete.

Many of the parishes were without power and bookkeepers and secretaries needed someplace to go with a working computer and internet so they could process payroll. Beverly Escamilla, benefits director, and Cathy Favre, accounting manager, set up computers and worked with parish staffs on processing payroll and helping parishes transfer their funds. In addition they were around to answer the many questions that were flowing into the Pastoral Center.

Jesús Abrego, director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry worked to distribute goods to some of the hardest hit areas, especially Oak Island and other parts of Chambers County.

He helped organize the volunteers to collect goods such as blankets, sleeping bags and cleaning supplies.

Abrego said one of the more important things he did was to listen to the people tell their stories. He said the people needed to talk, needed someone to share their sorrow and their joy to be alive in spite of their losses.

Nancy Collins, superintendent of Catholic schools, not only had damage at her own home to think about but also had six schools to check on.

She said she stayed in touch with the principals or the pastors at each of the school locations and knew of the damage that each had suffered.

Parents went and helped clean the debris from the school properties to help get the campuses back in shape for school to begin again.

Collins also began collecting information on the school families affected by the hurricane to begin determining who may need tuition assistance. She added that the families at St. Mary School in Orange were the hardest hit, with some of the families now homeless.

And several staff members volunteered at points of distribution run by Catholic Charities of Southeast Texas. These included Gail Hernandez, secretary to the vicar general, and Letty Lanza, Jackie Bonvillion and Gilman, of the Office of Stewardship and Communications, as well as Jesus Abrego, director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry.