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As some residents of the Albany Diocese pumped water out of basements and cleared fallen tree limbs from yards in the wake of Hurricane Irene, others in hard-hit areas like Greene County remained unreachable as The Evangelist went to press Aug. 30.

Faith formation associate Kay Skelly lives in Glenville but ministers at St. Margaret of Cortona Church in flooded Rotterdam Junction, a mission of St. Joseph's parish in Schenectady. On Aug. 30, the phone lines at St. Margaret's were still down.

"I talked to our administrative assistant and she said there was water running across the road and they did not have Mass on Sunday, but I tried to call her back and I could not get through, so I don't know what's happening," Ms. Skelly told The Evangelist. "They're in a very low-lying area, and when I see the water in those pictures" on the news, concern mounts.

At St. Mary's parish in Amsterdam, secretary Betsy Barker sounded stunned: A house located in the parish cemetery that had just been rented to Rev. William Hodgetts, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, had been torn apart by floodwaters.

"We didn't expect this kind of devastation," she said Aug. 30. "It was built in the 1800s. They're pumping the water out now and his car is totally destroyed. He's here with us temporarily. We just got power and phones today."

Three floods
The church, rectory and school basements at St. Patrick's parish in Ravena all flooded and firefighters spent six and a half hours pumping them out when the parish was without power, according to Lori Nunziato, pastoral associate for administration.

Worse yet, water seeped through walls and windows in the school building, which is used for faith formation and rented out for events. Two classrooms that were destroyed had just been refurbished by parish youth to earn a Boy Scout's Eagle Scout rank and a Girl Scout's Gold Award.

"It's pretty extensive, the damage," Ms. Nunziato stated.

Room at the inn
Pat Brancoforte of Middleburgh was just grateful she had a place to go.

Ms. Brancoforte lives across the street from Our Lady of the Valley parish. When she was left with no power and a dead sump pump, Rev. Thomas Holmes, pastor, offered her temporary lodging in exchange for answering the phone at the parish.

"Father Tom was kind enough to take me and my cat in," Ms. Brancoforte told The Evangelist Aug. 29. "We're keeping each other company. It reduces the stress level."

Father Holmes was "out shoveling mud" at the time, she added, since the parish had a flooded basement, as well.

The lights went out halfway through the 8 a.m. Sunday Mass at St. Stanislaus parish in Amsterdam when Irene hit, according to Deacon Michael Ryba, but Mass continued and the parish even held its 10 a.m. liturgy by candlelight, with parishioners clustered in the front pews.

Our Lady of the Snow parish in Grafton/Berlin had proactively cancelled Sunday Mass before Irene hit; Sacred Heart parish in Stamford cancelled its parish picnic.

"The benefit is that many people did stay in and did evacuate when told," reported office manager Steve Gubler of Our Lady of Hope parish in Copake Falls on Aug. 29.

OLH did not cancel Mass the day of the storm, but he said most Mass-goers attended the Saturday vigil instead.

Water everywhere
The Columbia County parish didn't sustain any damage, he said, but many parishioners' homes did: "We do have parishioners in areas that were dangerous, because we're out in the country and there's a lot of water around."

Mr. Gubler told The Evangelist that, the day after Irene swept through the area, he still had two sump pumps running in his own basement, "but I'm thankful we didn't lose power. My mom is on oxygen and we have a tank in the house" that needs electricity.

"Greene County was hit much harder than us," he added - a report echoed by other nearby parishes like Holy Trinity in Hudson/Germantown, where staff said "our friends in Greene County are suffering."

Hunter and Tannersville experienced severe flooding; in Windham, the Batavia Kill River overflowed and three to four feet of water raged down Main Street, destroying countless homes and businesses.

Many Greene County parishes remained without phone service in the wake of the storm, so damage reports could not be confirmed.

In Stockade
Another hard-hit area was Schenectady's Stockade district. Three employees of St. John the Evangelist parish in Schenectady live in that neighborhood; on Aug. 29, parish secretary Gail Wilson said that one hadn't checked in yet, another had been evacuated from his home and pastoral associate Sister Joan Vlaun, OP, had chosen to stay in her home while residents waited for the Mohawk River to crest.

"It's starting to creep up Front Street," where Sister Joan lives, said Ms. Wilson. The river crested later that day.

"Jumpin' Jack's is under water," added Eileen Mazur, pastoral associate for administration at St. Joseph's in nearby Scotia. The immensely popular local eatery, located right on the banks of the Mohawk River, had completely flooded until only its rooftops could be seen above the water.

"Living in Scotia is like living on an island" right now, Ms. Mazur said. With so many bridges closed, she was unable to get out of the city even to visit her brother in Ellis Hospital. Otherwise, though, she said damage in her neighborhood consisted of "typical power outages" and downed trees.

The fire department pumped two feet of water out of the parish house and church basements at St. Lucy/St. Bernadette's in Altamont when the power failed and sump pumps stopped working, but parish life director Sister Mary Lou Liptak, RSM, was more concerned with nearby residents of Berne.

"There's a lot of destruction up there," she said Aug. 30, although she believed no parishioners were among those flooded out of their homes.

Sister Lou had heard that power would not be restored to Berne until next weekend. She called area residents hardy souls who were used to dealing with hardships: "We offered the parish center [as a shelter], but they're doing OK."

Hoping for best
As of Aug. 29, parish life director Jeffrey Peck could only assume that Our Lady of the Snow parish in Grafton/Berlin and its parishioners had weathered the storm. The Berlin worship site seemed fine when Mr. Peck checked it over, but the Grafton site is located on Route 2, a main road that was still closed.

Mr. Peck said that since the Grafton church is on top of a hill, he assumed there was no flooding, but "I can't get to church today."

Some parishes reported few effects from the storm. At St. Mary's in Coxsackie, staff said that Deacon Michael McDonald had weathered more than 13 inches of rain at his East Durham home and remained without power on Monday, but had told parishioners that he was fine.

Maureen Brennan, parish secretary at St. Mary's/Our Lady of the Lake Church in Cooperstown, said that power was still out Aug. 29 for many residents in the Otsego County town - including some neighborhoods where one side of a street had power and the other didn't. That phenomenon was also reported in Albany and Schenectady.

In Cooperstown, "Some people didn't have power from 10:30 [a.m.] to 8 [p.m.] on Sunday," Ms. Brennan said.

Tourist trade
That will hurt businesses in the tourist town, she added: "All these storekeepers have really been hoping for these big weekends. If it rains next weekend, we'll cry."

Even a "normal" rainy weekend makes parishioners of St. Mary's who run local businesses groan, she said, as tourists cast about for ways to occupy their time. "We see families and think, 'Oh, how much did it cost them to get here?' We get people from all over the world."

Rev. John Rosson, pastor, told The Evangelist that St. Mary's also depends on summer parishioners for income, but only 320 Catholics attended Masses the weekend of the hurricane instead of the usual 700 to 800. "It took its toll on our Sunday offertory," he said.

Other parishes in the Diocese reporting storm damage included St. Mary's in Nassau, Our Lady Queen of Apostles in Frankfort, Sacred Heart in Margaretville, Our Lady of Fatima in Delanson, Holy Trinity in Hudson/Germantown and Holy Trinity in Cohoes. There was also a report of damage to Sacred Heart Church in Cohoes, which had closed in 2007.[[In-content Ad]]

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