Episcopal dioceses step up relief and recovery efforts after back-to-back hurricanes

[Episcopal News Service] Several dioceses across the Southeastern United States are still in the early stages of recovering from hurricanes Helene and Milton after the devastating and deadly late-season storms made landfall within two weeks of each other.

Hurricane Helene was a powerful Category 4 storm with winds of up to 140 miles per hour. It moved from the Big Bend region of the Florida Panhandle late on Sept. 26 into the hills of Appalachia two days later. Helene was most catastrophic for Asheville, North Carolina, where the Diocese of Western North Carolina is based. At least 227 people, half in North Carolina, are known to have died from the storm, though the death toll could rise higher as more missing people become accounted for.

“We’re still assessing the damage and just starting to get into rebuilding,” Sinclaire Sparkman, the Diocese of Western North Carolina’s missioner for communication, told Episcopal News Service by phone on Oct. 19. “We’re having to build the property at [Cathedral of All Souls in Asheville]. Church of the Transfiguration in Bat Cave’s building is OK, but the roads are washed out so no one can really go there.”

Cathedral of All Souls parishioners are gathering at Trinity Episcopal Church in Asheville for in-person worship services while the cathedral gets repaired.

Sparkman said a couple of priests in the diocese have reported that parishioners have died,although she was unable to immediately confirm how many or which congregations they were members of.

Kanuga, a nonprofit Episcopal camp and conference center about 40 miles south of Asheville near Hendersonville, had suffered extensive damage from flooding, fallen trees and winds. It has since reopened to the public.

Hurricane Milton, the second Category 5 hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, had decreased in strength to a Category 3 storm when it made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, about 35 miles south of Parrish, on Oct. 9. At peak intensity, Milton became the fifth-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a pressure of 897 millibars. At least 32 people in the United States are known to have died from the storm.

Helene and Milton both devastated several churches in the Parrish-based Diocese of Southwest Florida, including the diocesan house and DaySpring Camp & Conference Center.

“It’s absolutely a serious problem, because the churches severely damaged from Helene were all a result of flood, and we are capped in our insurance policies at $1 million. That is what’s putting a substantial burden on these churches,” Michael Booher, the Diocese of Southwest Florida’s chief financial officer, told ENS. “We were still dealing with the financial aftermath of Hurricane Ian from two years ago when Helene and Milton arrived.”

At least five churches in Southwest Florida incurred more than $1 million in damages, including Calvary Episcopal Church in Indian Rocks Beach at about $1.5 million, according to Booher.

Both hurricanes also reached the Jacksonville-based Diocese of Florida, but Milton had a much weaker impact than Helene. Keith Daw, the diocese’s chief operating officer, told ENS in a written statement that many church leaders there, including laity, are “working hard” to support residents and communities most affected by the hurricanes, both within the state of Florida and in other states, including North Carolina.

“We are blessed that our parishes’ structures, as well as our diocesan headquarters, fared well through Hurricane Helene. However, several of the communities our parishes serve, such as Cedar Key, Perry, Live Oak and Mayo, among others, were hit hard but are recovering,” Daw said. “The losses experienced by some of those residents are heartbreaking. The opportunity to be a resource, a source of fulfilling needs, is to be Christ’s hands.”

Episcopalians in the Knoxville-based Diocese of East Tennessee also have been busy helping where needed across dioceses. Brother Andrew Morehead of The Ecumenical Order of Charity, the diocese’s missioner for communications and evangelism, told ENS that the Diocese of East Tennessee has been splitting hurricane relief donations received in half between itself and the Diocese of Western North Carolina. As of Oct. 18, the Diocese of East Tennessee had received more than $50,000 in direct donations from people and $25,000 from Episcopal Relief & Development, and as much as $20,000 already has been spent in purchasing Walmart and Dollar General gift cards for distribution, as well as food, clothes and other necessities. 

“It sounds like a lot of money, but it’ll be spent really fast,” Morehead said. “The damage here from Helene didn’t seem that bad from the beginning, but it’s a lot worse than we initially thought. It’s surprising just how powerful water really is and how much damage it can do with even just a little bit in the wrong place. …And we must work in stages. We’ve got to clean up the food and clothing banks first before we can take donations, for example, because the food and clothes that were already in storage can’t be used anymore.”

The Diocese of East Tennessee has also been engaging in ecumenical support, according to Morehead. For example, the diocese has given some of its monetary donations to support a Catholic church’s food pantry.

Liz Williams, the communications manager for the Savannah-based Diocese of Georgia, told ENS in an email that the diocese has been using money donated by Episcopal Relief & Development after Hurricane Helene to purchase and distribute gift cards for groceries and necessities to people in nearby Augusta, Vidalia, Douglas and Louisville, Georgia. The diocese has also been donating tents and sleeping bags for the Okefenokee Homeless Alliance in Waycross.

Through support from Episcopal Relief & Development and donations to its Bishop’s Fund for Disaster Relief, “we’ll be able to make sure the insurance deductibles for the four parishes and our camp and conference center, Honey Creek, will be paid with no hardship to the churches,” Williams said. “Any funds remaining will be used to continue to support work within each community as recovery continues.”

ENS has also reached out to the dioceses of Central Florida, Upper South Carolina and Southwestern Georgia. This story will be updated as further information is received.

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.