Vermilion Faith Community of Care
PO Box 554   Abbeville, La.  70511
 Voice/Fax: (337) 893-5589     E-mail:   vfcc@cox.net

Uniting the faith community of Vermilion Parish in service
through meeting critical human need.

Providing hurricane recovery services in Vermilion Parish.

2008 Hurricane season brings two more hurricanes to Vermilion Parish - Gustav and Ike

Though Hurricane Gustav brought little damage to the parish, Hurricane Ike again brought flooding to lower-lying areas of the parish.  Many of the homes that had been flooded by Hurricane Rita in 2005 had been raised, and were able to escape any serious damage this time around.  Other homes, however, that had been repaired but not raised, had to face another round of cleanup and repairs.  On the whole, a much smaller number of families were seriously affected, since the rise in the water was more gentle and brought much less mud and muck than before.  Erath and Delcambre, both heavily flooded in 2005, again had serious problems to deal with.  Read about Delcambre’s Dilemma and A Rainbow over Erath.

Project A-Manna brings needed appliances to recovering families

Many families in Vermilion Parish, when they have completed the repair work on their homes, are still without resources to purchase major appliances, furniture, and other needed items for their homes.  Assisting families with appliances has been one of our major activities for 2007.  One of our partnerships has been with the St. Paul Episcopal Church in beautiful downtown Abbeville, through Project A-Manna.  For the full story, click here.

3rd Annual Day of Prayer for Protection from Hurricanes
on June 1st 2008.

We believe that God’s response to our 1st Day of Prayer on June 1, 2006, helped bring about the dramatic decrease in Atlantic storm activity during the season, with only two tropical storms making landfall in the US, and a total estimated destruction for the season that was a small fraction of 1% of that of the previous year!  The Louisiana Interfaith Disaster Recovery Network (LIDRN) is this project’s co-sponsor.

VFCC recently received Honorable Mention in the Make a Difference Day awards given by USA Weekend magazine for our work with hurricane cleanup in the fall of 2005.

In November 2005, VFCC began laying the groundwork for the Vermilion Parish Long-Term Recovery Coalition, to coordinate the efforts of local organizations and communities, as well as volunteers and organizations from around the US, in assisting local families and communities in recovering from the devastation of recent hurricanes.  Twenty organizations are now working together in this coalition.

2005 has had a very active hurricane season.  At the end of August, 2005, Hurricane Katrina came ashore on the Louisiana/Mississippi coastline as the most costly hurricane ever to hit the US.  Vermilion Parish was not damaged by this storm, but over 2,000 evacuees found their way to Vermilion Parish from affected areas, where some of them are still receiving assistance from the local community.

Hurricane Rita was not long behind Katrina, coming ashore on September 23, 2005.  Many people from Vermilion Parish were forced to evacuate.  Although we were not close to the center of the storm, lower Vermilion Parish suffered extensive damage, as a storm surge of 15-20 feet inundated thousands of homes in low-lying areas of the parish.  In response to the needs of families in Vermilion Parish for assistance in cleaning out and repairing their homes, VFCC opened a Volunteer Reception Center in Abbeville to coordinate the work of local and long-distance volunteers in this effort.

Significant resources are needed for these processes.  You can help.  Tax-exempt donations are appreciated.  You can come and visit us and go ‘muck a house’, or help with repairs.  Or you contact us to see how you can get more personally involved.

VFCC was organized in early 2003 in response to the devastation in Vermilion and surrounding parishes after Hurricane Lili.  Our primary effort in this recovery process was to help the families in Vermilion and surrounding parishes with the long-term recovery process. 

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