|
Hurricane Lili passed over Vermilion Parish on the morning of October 3, 2002. The days before she came ashore, Lili was rapidly growing to a Category 4 or 5 hurricane, and was headed directly toward us. By the Grace of God, assisted by prayers of many, by the time she came ashore, continuing the path she had been on, she had downgraded to a Category 1/2 storm, with maximum sustained winds over 100 m.p.h., leaving substantial devastation throughout Vermilion and surrounding parishes.
Local residents immediately set about dealing with the damage, providing necessary food and shelter for the storm’s victims. Local towns were without power for over a week. Very quickly, assistance poured in from around the country to help us meet our emergency needs, to restore order, and to get as many people as possible back into their homes.
While these phases were still going on, a representative from Church World Service came into the area and helped us organize an interfaith organization to begin the long-term recovery process for residents who were not able to complete this process with their own resources. Thus Vermilion Faith Community of Care was born.
Over the next year and a half, VFCC partnered with many other organizations to work on this recovery process, both in Vermilion and surrounding parishes. Operations were directed through the United Methodist Disaster Recovery office in Lafayette. Volunteers and resources came to us from around the country. Together we assisted 300+ families in the region and over 140 families in Vermilion Parish with repairs to their homes and to their lives in the next 1-1/2 years.
|
|
