Parishes told to be prepared for hurricane season

GRENADA

“Well folks, you know how we does operate— pray like mad and hopefully that too will pass—but are we prepared?” Bishop Clyde Harvey of St Georges-in-Grenada posed this question to listeners during the weekly Conversation with the Bishop early July via Good News Catholic Communications.

The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. ‘Elsa’ strengthened into the first hurricane of the season Friday, July 2 as it battered the eastern Caribbean, where officials closed schools, businesses, and airports.

As a Tropical Storm Watch was issued for Grenada and its dependencies for Thursday, July 1, Bishop Harvey said “I’m afraid when I listen in parishes, I’m not hearing you are prepared. I’m not hearing that you know who is in charge of your disaster preparedness committee. I’m not hearing that you know where to go for what.”

Bishop Harvey outlined while the National Disaster Management Agency (NaDMA) Grenada has educated citizens on what they should have in their homes in the event of an emergency, it is a Christian responsibility to look out for the less fortunate. Each parish, he asserted, should know where its vulnerable are.

“The old lady who comes to church, who hobbles to church on a Sunday morning and doesn’t have any transport. Where is she? Is she going to stay in her home if storm coming? That’s a question you should ask her, but you should also have within the parish, the resources, and if she wants to move out for anxiety and fear, somebody will take her in,” he explained.

Bishop Harvey then appealed to parish priests and parish councils to implement a disaster team.

He clarified, “I don’t want to call it a committee because a committee will not meet… but a disaster team, a group of people, hopefully not less than four or five, who know what they’re about as soon as a disaster strikes…but somebody who is able to really help us in moments like this.”

To this end, Bishop Harvey hoped and prayed that the country will view parishes as “havens” and the Catholic Church as always being prepared.