As Hurricane Milton took aim at Florida just days after Hurricane Helene, Catholic Charities USA launched a dedicated disaster relief donation campaign.
CCUSA — the official domestic relief agency of the Catholic Church in the U.S. and a member of Caritas Internationalis, the Church’s global network of humanitarian outreaches — announced the fund Oct. 9, as Milton churned across the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida with maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour.
The hurricane fluctuated in intensity and was a Category 4 by midday Oct. 9, but it made landfall as a powerful Category 3 storm at 8:30 p.m. (EST) Oct. 10 near Siesta Key, Fla., a barrier island next to Sarasota, bringing heavy rain, strong winds and powerful storm surges.
Milton flooded neighborhoods, destroyed homes and ripped the roof off Tropicana Field, home stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team. The field had been set up to shelter first responders. More than 3.3 million in the state were without power early Oct. 10, and early reports said at least four people had died.
AP reported that ahead of Milton’s landfall, more than 130 tornado warnings associated with the storm were issued by National Weather Services offices in Florida.
Donations to the CCUSA relief fund can be made on the agency’s website at ccusa.online/milton; by texting MILTON to 20406; or by mailing checks to CCUSA at 2050 Ballenger Ave, Suite 400, Alexandria, Va., 22314. Information about additional ways to give can be obtained by contacting CCUSA at (800) 919-9338 or donations@catholiccharitiesusa.org.
“What we can say is the storm was significant, but thankfully, this was not the worst case scenario,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said early Oct. 10 during a news briefing at Speaking from the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee. “The storm did weaken before landfall, and the storm surge, as initially reported, has not been as significant overall as what was observed for Hurricane Helene.”
Milton hit Florida as the region is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Helene, which killed at least 227 across six states in September.
Hurricane Helene’s broad impact across an entire swath of the U.S. South means resources will be stretched thin following the massive storm, according to Peter Routsis-Arroyo, the CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami. Helene garnered Category 4 major hurricane status just before landfall along the Florida Panhandle Sept 26. The 500-mile-wide storm then carried catastrophic flooding and destruction through Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
Routsis-Arroyo, who has helped facilitate hurricane response efforts around Florida for several decades, spent Sept. 28 to Oct. 2 driving throughout some of the affected areas of the Dioceses of Pensacola-Tallahassee and St. Augustine in Florida’s Big Bend area. The Archdiocese of Miami and Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski have launched an online relief fund appeal to support Catholic Charities’ efforts following the hurricane. One hundred percent of all funds received will be directed to provide humanitarian relief and assistance to those affected by the hurricane.
The National Hurricane Center reported that Milton weakened to a Category 1 storm as it swept through the state “and moved offshore.”
In its Oct. 9 announcement, CCUSA said “100 percent of all funds raised will be allocated to local Catholic Charities agencies, which will provide critical relief — including shelter, food and other humanitarian aid — to displaced and suffering members of their communities.”
“Our brothers and sisters urgently need our prayers and our support as Hurricane Milton brings life-threatening conditions to Florida communities, some of which are still reeling from Hurricane Helene,” CCUSA president and CEO Kerry Alys Robinson said.
So far, CCUSA has distributed more than $1.9 million to Catholic Charities agencies in states affected by Hurricane Helene.
