In western North Carolina, among the areas hit the hardest by Hurricane Helene, a local priest is rallying Knights and others to get supplies to victims of the storm. Traveling around western North Carolina in the days following Hurricane Helene, Father Joshua Johnson found the immensity of the damage hard to comprehend. Wanting to help his parishioners and others affected by the storm, Father Johnson reached out to Corpus Christi Catholic Community — an Ordinariate community in Charleston, South Carolina — for help collecting generators, large coolers for refrigeration, and propane tanks for cooking. Knights from Father P. N. Lynch Council 704 in Charleston offered to coordinate gathering and delivering donations.
Within the week, council members and Corpus Christi parishioners had collected supplies worth more than $8,000. Volunteers drove more than four hours to bring the donations — which also included food, water and diapers — to Father Johnson’s parish, where they were distributed to community members in need.
“Seeing where people had died and where their lives had been destroyed was sobering,” said Father Johnson, a married priest of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter and a member of the Knights of Columbus. “We’re not used to hurricanes, and this caught a lot of us by surprise.”
Past Grand Knight George Seago of Council 704 said the Knights in Charleston were just trying to pay it forward. “We all remember Hurricane Hugo,” he explained, referring to the Category 5 storm that devastated South Carolina in 1989. “Strangers — people we had never met — offered to help us in our time of need. As Knights, we knew this was our chance to help this community.”
How We Can Help
“The first thing people can do for us is have Masses offered for the souls of the people who died,” he said, “and then pray for the people who have lost someone — especially parents who saw their children swept away by flood waters — and who lost their livelihood.”
And in the months and years ahead, when Hurricane Helene — and now Hurricane Milton, which hit Florida Oct. 10 — disappear from the news cycle, residents will need help from volunteers to rebuild their communities. It would be, Father Johnson said, the perfect opportunity for his brother Knights to see a need and rise to meet it.
If you’d like to make a donation to assist hurricane victims, you can do so at kofc12801.square.site. Just select “Pay it Forward” under our current campaigns and check “Hurricane Relief”. We will collect all donations and send them to the Supreme Council for distribution. You can also leave a donation in the parish office – just notate on the check how you want the money used.