Hurricane Ida Relief Effort Report, Deacon Larry Oney

praise be jesus christ very honored to have with me today my my good friend deacon larry oni who's been doing relief effort work uh since hurricane ida deacon larry welcome thank you so much father it's good to be here with you deacon why don't you start by just sharing with us i mean you're in the one of the hardest hit areas of of hurricane ida describe to us what happened well you know this was a a lot of people remember katrina father uh katrina was a water event but this event was when right where i'm sitting right now we had winds over this house of 150 plus miles per hour i don't think there have been any winds like that since the early 1900s so this was a catastrophic event we're sitting in it right now so we're about 15 minutes west of the city of new orleans and then the further you go west the more damage and then when you go south even more significant damage you know andy my wife so she's from down south toward the gulf of mexico but it is a pretty devastating right now father and a lot of people are still without power and some without water even when i contacted you the the day after the hurricane you were already at work helping neighbors just just describe what the initial kind of response was like you your house didn't sustain major damages just describe that those first days yeah we didn't get uh the heavy damage but we did have roof damage and some water came in but that's nothing compared to the people who were west of the city uh where there was significant flooding to almost the entire community in saint john the baptist parish and that's where we focused that so we were on the ground uh the next day we were already we have a homeless issue in this area so we're already ministering to the homeless but now there are many people out of their homes and that's where we focus just trying to provide them with some food and just some general assistance and of course you know you immediately called and said hey look we want to help and we needed that help people don't understand that when you lose everything you really don't know where to go so there's a lot of homeless people right now and the support that you guys have been giving us has been amazing uh what's happening so the next day we started to try and help people uh to get orientated and to figure out what they're gonna do next helping with hotels etc i remember when i was in houston when hurricane harvey had many people i mean they live paycheck to paycheck and they don't have they're not in a situation where you know they can just kind of tap into funds or whatever and we were helping people in in very critical urgent needs and some of these people too wouldn't have the means even to get some of the government assistance immediately it was just it's hard to describe but there when something like this happens there's a a urgent need to just help people immediately and then the the the work continues just describe some of the work you've been doing since the hurricane you know father you have a great insight because you did go through harvey that's exactly right people think that uh okay well there's government aid the government aid doesn't come from many days after and then it's very hard to access so you know you and i was over at harvey right after on the ground and you lived through it but some of the things we're doing is very simple that things that people don't think about okay when there's a hurricane your house gets flooded uh you have nowhere to go but you still have children so you still need a little money to buy a little food and you have to have cash because the banks are not working because the electricity is down so we were doing that we're helping old ladies move out of their apartments just physically being there on the ground to help them to try and salvage what they can giving them a little money that they can go and buy food people forget about that it's a hard thing but you know about it so we've been doing that and also providing meals for people there's nowhere to cook people think they see the national guard on the ground but they're providing water but not anything to eat so we were literally and we are today as well father we'll be on the ground providing some food some meals uh for people to eat and basic sustenance and giving them a small amount of money even 20 dollars is a big help because people work as disruptive particularly for the working poor yeah and it's it's such a beautiful work i mean the lord commanded us to help people in need especially the poor the homeless and how do you see things for the next couple weeks months for people who are still recovering you know this is amazing father because you have an insight that most people don't have and again let me quickly say thank you to your community uh to the companions to you using your platform to give some funds so we can do stuff that people think that the government does it's just not so the working poor have issues that others don't think so we're still believe it or not there are people that are literally living in houses that water is coming to the roof i'm not exaggerating that in any way and when you see some of the pictures that we'll send you over the next couple days you'll see when we go down toward the bayou area they're people living in camps and tents so the next couple weeks what will happen now now people will try and figure out well where am i going to live long term while my house is put back together housing is going to be the big issue and transitioning out of this so meanwhile people still need to be supported with food and water because they have no ability to cook meals in their homes so now we'll start to need uh support for children and stuff like that again people need a little money to help them get through eventually the government aid will catch up but as you know particularly for the poor it's hard to navigate that we're going to shift toward the next two three months toward trying to help people to navigate the system to access the aid that's difficult for uh poor people and people that are not highly educated it's a it's a difficult process for everybody but right now it's hand to mouth to help people to get a meal to help them get stable when we were working after hurricane harvey we had a couple university students uh i know at least one of them maybe two of them studied law and they had their computers and people would come up and they would help them take the steps they needed to get government aid and again you discover these practical ways of helping people when you're on the ground and and it's hard work but it's it's so satisfying there's a sense that you know there's nothing i would rather be doing right now than helping these it's like it's what i'm supposed to be doing um you know some people when i kind of was asking for help uh for after hurricane ida you know they're saying well you know there's a lot of places that need help and i just said listen and someone quoted this in my comments they said mother teresa said if you can't feed a hundred people feed one person amen and when hurricane ida hit there was just a real sense that you know i think i can do something to help and i put out an appeal and and my viewers and my parishioners knights of columbus they came through so generously and um i i i'm just humbled at how generous the people were and i just want to say word to my viewers like thank you so much and deacon larry you're a well-known leader in in the in the church in the community down in louisiana in the diocese very well respected you and i have ministered together a number of times over the years and everyone i talked to i it's mainly through email they're all saying go to deacon larry deacon larry's doing this work he has he has a team he's on this and and and so for me it's like yeah of course i i'm buddies with deacon larry i i know he's just you know just a real good man of god doing good work for so on so i just want to thank you because i know what you're doing it's hard work it it has institutions and trials and it's you have your own life and things going on it's upsetting to to you know to have to shift gears and help and so i know you're love what you're doing but i also know that has this challenge so it's just a huge thank you and we'll get some of those those pictures i know you sent a few already and i'll i'll include them in my videos um any closing words for well father i just want to thank you andy and i we're literally when we finish this interview we're going to the site to uh to distribute uh help to the people literally we're waking our 17 year old son up and he's going with us whether he wants to or not but you the encouragement that you've given through your personal attention to help hope and purpose our humble little ministry we're touching a lot of lives some people go who is this canadian priest that you're talking about and what does he do why is he doing this because he knows that god is close to the broken heart and to the poor and so we have intentionally with hope and purpose we know we have to stay close to the poor that's what we do in africa now we're doing it in our own community father you've encouraged us and many others so i think it's providential that god sent you down here to minister to us and to be using your platform to help us to help the people of god in this region many people uh of of canadian and uh uh descent and french descent so there's a real connection with the community that you are serving so we're thankful for you father and we we just we just we're just overwhelmed and you're encouraging us so much well we appreciate it happy happy to be helping and again thank you for your good work please greet your wife uh andy for for me and um also the good people down there and i'll put a link for for your ministry hope and purpose ministries so if people wanna um uh can contribute they can do that and again blessings blessings upon you and again blessings on all the viewers who've helped support this good work viva cristore thank you father

Channel: Fr. Mark Goring

Views: 9,911

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Length: 10min 12sec (612 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021