Aid to the Church in Need: Carribean: Devastation has Hurricane Ike strikes

Carribean: Devastation has Hurricane Ike strikes

Posted by Press Release on 17/9/2008, 8:43 am
Board Administrator

ACN News, Wednesday, 17th September 2008 – CARIBBEAN
Devastation as killer hurricane strikes

• Worst hurricane in living memory hits Caribbean
• ACN offers record-breaking aid and launches emergency appeal

By John Pontifex

CATHOLIC charity Aid to the Church in Need is sending out €100,000 (AUD $177,000) in emergency aid to Cuba and Haiti after the region was lashed by one of the worst hurricanes in living memory.
The urgent assistance – one of the highest amounts of its kind ever paid out by ACN – comes after Hurricane Ike left 80 or more confirmed dead in Haiti plus a further 10 in Cuba.
Thousands of people are now without homes and food after the Category Four hurricane steam-rollered across the Atlantic smashing everything in sight with winds of almost 160km/h (100mph) high and waves of up to 23 metres high.
With signs of a deepening humanitarian crisis and growing concerns of a health epidemic, ACN is launching an appeal to help the homeless, calling on people’s prayers and generosity.
Senior Church sources in Cuba said they “had never seen such a catastrophe”. One said: “Imagine Cuba was a candle – it’s as if it has just been blown out, with darkness and despair everywhere. Please pray for us.”
In Isla de la Juventud, an island off the south Cuban coast, 80 percent of properties were reported damaged or destroyed.
Across Cuba, at least 70 government emergency food containers were lost to the hurricane, according to reports from the island.
Despite the loss of most lines of communication, ACN has now reached a number of bishops leading relief work missions and has promised food, blankets and shelter.
With reports of worsening devastation coming in all the time, ACN has so far pledged €60,000 across Cuba including Ciego de Avila, Camagüey, Guantánamo, Holguin and Pinar del Rio plus a further €40,000 to Les Gonaives and Port-de-Paix in Haiti.
In Holguin, Bishop Emilio Aranguren reported that four churches were destroyed plus another 10 with serious damage and other bishops reported the loss of ‘mission houses’ (house chapels).
Across Ciego de Avila diocese in northern Cuba, Bishop Mario Mestrill reported that 327 homes had been completed flattened and a further 1,000 had suffered severe water damage. He appealed for food, clothes, pillows and other bedding.
Cuba has reportedly rejected offers of emergency aid from the US.
ACN Latin America projects coordinator Xavier Legorreta said he had become increasingly worried as he tried repeatedly to make contact with Church authorities across the region.
He added: “This is a very distressing time for so many thousands of people. They feel abandoned and frightened and have nobody to turn to for help.
“I would simply ask for people’s prayers – to remember those whose lives were totally wrecked in just a matter of seconds.”
Mr Legorreta, an expert and frequent traveller to both countries, said that both countries had little defence against natural disaster because the existing infrastructure was so weak.

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

To help this cause please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org