Lincoln, Neb., Mar 31, 2019 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- If you ask a Nebraskan how the historic floods over the past few weeks have affected them, they are likely to count their blessings, and to tell you that it could have been worse.
They’ll thank God for sparing their lives, rather than curse him for the destruction of their homes or the washing away of their cattle.
It’s not, so much, a reflection of the severity of the disastrous flooding (which covered a third of the state at its peak, and will likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars in property, crop and livestock losses), but rather a reflection of the faith and indomitability found in many a Nebraskan soul.
“We in Nebraska, we come together,” Tony Hergott told CNA. Hergott is the Disaster Relief Chairman for the Knights of Columbus, and has been coordinating groups of Knights to assist in some of the hardest-hit communities in Nebraska, including his own hometown of Columbus, which sits just north of the Loup river right before it meets up with the Platte.
“The biggest challenge we have as Nebraskans is – there’s a lot of pride in Nebraska. People don’t ask for help. You get up, you dust yourself off, you change your clothes, and you fix it – and then you go and help your neighbor, and that’s just the way it is,” Hergott said.
Many people won’t ask for assistance, even if they badly need it, until they are done taking care of their neighbors, he added.
“Its gut-wrenching and heart-warming at the same time,” he said.
On Wednesday, March 14, heavy rains piled on top of already-heavy snows to create the perfect storm of flooding conditions. Rivers and waterways throughout the eastern part of the state overflowed their banks to historic levels, washing away roads, homes, bridges, livestock, and anything else that stood in the way.
To lay down his life for his friends
Fortunately, evacuations and the quick responses of emergency workers resulted in very few lives lost to the floods in Nebraska, though at least one life was lost while trying to save the life of another.
James Wilke, a farmer near Columbus, set out on Wednesday with his tractor, guided by emergency workers, to try and save the life of a motorist stranded in the flood waters on a country road.
When Wilke drove his tractor out over a bridge on Shell Creek, the bridge collapsed under the weight of the tractor and the pressure of the floodwaters, sweeping Wilke and his tractor downstream. Wilke’s body was later found downstream, near his own farm, reported the Omaha World-Herald.
Hergott said that while Wilke was not a Knight of Columbus, he was a “faith-filled man who…embodied all that it is to be a Knight, in service to his brother. ‘I am my brother’s keeper.’ He went out to try to save one life and in return gave his.”
“When you see things like that, it moves you,” he said.
Hergott said the Knights of Columbus immediately reached out to the Wilke family to offer financial assistance and support.
The Knights also sent groups out to the hardest-hit communities in the area, including North Bend, where they talked to families, handed out food, water, cleaning supplies and gift cards, and hosted a fish fry for the other emergency responders and volunteers.
“It’s a Catholic community over there, we wanted to make sure that the Catholics had non-meat to eat on a Friday in Lent,” he said.
“When we were cooking fish and everyone was sitting down to eat, people were joking around like nothing ever happened,” he said. “I mean it’s like your dinner table where you talk and you tell your stories, your good times and bad times, but it’s family time.”
Hergott said the flooding in Columbus and the surrounding areas has been catastrophic, though they are only just beginning to get the full gist of exactly how much property has been damaged or lost.
Some of the greatest needs going forward are going to be hot water heaters and furniture, as well as financial assistance for rebuilding, he said.
He also asked for prayers.
“In North Bend a lady told me, ‘well, all we can do is pray’. And I said, ‘no, the greatest thing we can do is pray’. Don’t downgrade praying, that is the greatest thing. Somebody told me that years ago, and I’ve used that ever since,” he said.
“It’s just stuff that we lost.”
Carol Waldow is a 73 year-old Nebraskan from Bellevue who also spoke of the importance of prayer.
On the day the floods came, Waldow was ordered to evacuate her home by emergency responders.
“I just said: Dear God, what am I supposed to do? And he said: Get out!”
Waldow escaped with her husband and their two poodles. Their home, which sat in a development right next to Offutt Air Force Base, was destroyed.
Waldow and her husband moved in with one of their sons and his family. They’ve already found a new, closer parish to go to in the interim (St. Wenceslaus in Omaha) and are signing the lease on a new, small apartment “so we’ll have somewhere to lay our heads.”
Waldow said that while thinking of her losses can sometimes make her “weepy,” she knows that she still has all of the most important things.
“It’s just stuff that we lost,” Waldow told CNA.
“I didn’t lose my faith, I didn’t lose my family, and I didn’t lose my friends. You know, and I really wasn’t living for all that stuff anyway, I’m living for better rewards in heaven. I’m not living for those knickknacks and pictures and things like that,” she said.
Waldow said she hoped the flood would be a good reminder to everyone that “we don’t live forever.”
“The things that we have are all gifts of God anyway, and we need to remember that to God we shall return, and it’s only through his blessing that we have life anyway,” she said.
When she’s tempted to feel sorry for herself, Waldow said she gets out her Magnificat and says her prayers.
“It’s just such a blessing that I have my faith, because without my faith and my family and my friends I’d have nothing anyway. It just brings me closer to God,” she said.
“We can’t always choose the kind of Lent we will have”
The levels and severity of the flooding was unlike anything most Nebraskans have seen in the state in their lifetimes.
“It came on so fast; I talked to a lady who was in her 90s, and she said that the only flood that was near this was in 1943, so it was kind of a once-in-a-hundred-years type of situation,” said Father Tim Forget, who, like many priests in rural Nebraska, is the pastor of two parishes – St. Jane Frances in Randolph and St. Mary in Osmond.
And, like many rural priests that Wednesday, Forget ended up being stranded away from his parish when the floods hit. Forget, who normally lives in Randolph, drove to Osmond that Wednesday to celebrate Mass and to hold adoration.
But soon after making the trip over, he realized: “Wow, this is really getting bad quick.”
Parents started calling to get their kids from school, and Forget opened up the normally-vacant Osmond rectory to teachers and families who couldn’t get back home. Then he tried to make the trip back to his Randolph rectory, but ended up rerouting to Norfolk, a nearby town, due to the numerous road closures.
Forget said his parishes “thankfully” didn’t sustain any damage, while the Catholic school had some water in the basement. Some parishioners homes were not as lucky.
Despite the damages, “there’s been a lot of positive people, it’s a very tight Catholic parish,” Forget said.
In a reflection in his March 31 bulletin, Forget wrote: “Small town Nebraska has a lot to teach the outside world about coming together and helping. We can’t always choose the kind of Lent we will have but we can choose what we will do when it comes to us. In so many ways I see all of you being such amazing examples of what it means to be a Christian family.”
Fr. Bill L’Heureux is another rural Nebraska priest whose life was made more interesting by the flooding, as he pastors four parishes in northeastern Nebraska: St. Lawrence in Silver Creek, St. Peter and Paul in Krakow, St. Rose of Lima in Genoa, and St. Edward in St. Edward.
After the floods, he offered to help another priest in a nearby parish with adoration.
“I told him I had to go through two time zones, the Pony Express, one Indian reservation and three check stations to get there,” he joked. “It’s kind of fun.”
Every weekend, L’Heureux celebrates one Mass at each parish. Except now, he is cut off from his St. Edward parish due to washed-away bridges and closed roads.
Like in Osmund, St. Edward was able to open up the vacant rectory to host some families who were driven out of their homes by the flooding until they could make more permanent arrangements, he said.
“I’m just so proud of everybody stepping up and helping each other out and taking care of their neighbors, it’s all the stuff we preach about on Sunday,” he said, recalling the Gospel passage about the fig tree bearing fruit.
“I’m just the gardener,” he said.
About 70 miles to the east of the Silver Creek area, the city of Fremont turned into an island after the floods cut off all roads and bridges leading into town.
Fr. William Nolte, pastor of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Fremont, had to be flown back into the town from Omaha after getting stranded during the floods.
“I called my principal and said hey, if you know anybody who has a plane or a helicopter so I can get out of here, whatever it costs, I’m going to need to get back. Within 15 minutes I got a call that it just so happened that a neighbor four doors down flies to work and he had flown in that day and gave me a ride back. It was very providential,” he said. “So it’s amazing how God has been taking care of his family down here.”
Nolte said people in the Fremont area are bracing for the long-haul; recovery from the floods could take months and in some cases years.
“This is not just a one week, two week, one month problem. This is going to be a problem, but an opportunity to take care of one another – this is going to be a several-year opportunity. And so they’re bracing for that,” Nolte said.
Father Kizito Okhuoya is the pastor in the towns of Niobrara and Verdigre, which bore some of the worst of the brunt of the floods when the nearby Spencer dam failed March 14.
“The words I use are devastating, shocking, overwhelming, just unbelievable,” he said.
“People who have lived here all their life have never seen anything like it, some people recall that there was a flood in the ’60s, but it’s nothing close to what they experienced this time around. We were kind of blindsided because nobody saw this coming,” he said.
While the parishes were spared any major damage, many homes were lost or damaged, and farms that had been in families for generations were wiped out. Chunks of ice swept in by the floods made much of the area nearly impassable before they melted.
“Parishioners lost a lot of their possessions,” Okhuoya said. “People lost collectibles, sentimental things, people lost a lot of stuff.”
But people from neighboring communities have stepped up to help, he added, sending crews of people to clean up mud, or pump out water, or haul trash out of flooded basements.
“It’s been unbelievable the generosity, the outreach, the kindness, the compassion that people have shown us, it’s very humbling for me to see all that,” he said.
The Archdiocese of Omaha has a special collection for flood relief, and he said he’s been getting calls of spiritual and material support from many places throughout the country.
Okhuoya said the clean-up process has been “very emotional”, as people come to terms with the scope of the losses they’ve suffered, so he teamed up with the Methodist pastor in town to offer an ecumenical prayer service where people were able to pray together and read God’s word, he said.
“In my weekend homilies since this happened, I’ve been pushing messages of hope and of God’s love, a message of gratitude. A message that maybe there are lessons here, that God wants us to rethink our priorities and focus on the things are important, because like I said in one of my homilies, sometimes we quibble and fight over nothing. But when this flood hit, nobody was fighting,” he said.
Small towns can sometimes have a way of letting small divisions fester over time, but it shouldn’t take a disaster to bring people together, Okhuoya said.
“Why can’t we stay this way? Why do we have to allow things like this to happen to force us to create that connection and to care and to show compassion? Why can’t we just always do that? We don’t need all these calamities to push us to where we can show that kind of compassion always,” he said.
“So why can’t we learn the lessons and always be the best we can be, as Christians, as Catholics, as citizens of this country, and do the best to work with each other, and do whatever is good, whatever is honorable, or whatever is going to touch the lives of people. For me … I think that’s what I am learning.”
[…]
Although today’s polls are often contradicted by tomorrow’s, a recent poll claimed that more than half the Catholics contacted endorsed VP Harris. Apparently, a great number (alas!) don’t feel the abandonment to which Sen. Vance refers. Of course, as Deacon Peitler has pointed out in several responses to other articles, how was “Catholics” defined in the poll to which I’m referring, or was it even defined at all?
Precisely, Ken T. There are Catholics and there are Catholics.
I personally think that if VP Kamala Harris is elected, along with Gov. Walz, that within a few months, their lack of qualifications will become sadly evident and there will be demands for their resignation. I hope that if they are elected, VP Harris will have the sense to choose people wiser than her for her Cabinet and for other advisory positions.
There are many eligible Democrats that have more experience, more people skills, and more governing skills-it was shocking that VP Harris received the nomination, especially after she demonstrated incompetence in the several “jobs” that Pres. Biden gave her during his Presidency. I realize that most Democrats (actually, all elected Democrats) are pro-abortion–but there are many other issues that require experience and intelligence, which Harris and Walz lack, and other Democrats have.
In our state, the campaigns for “women’s reproductive rights” are filled with exaggerations and falsehoods–and many Americans believe them (because they WANT to believe them).
I think the best hope that we have of electing pro-life and pro-religion candidates is that many of the younger people who are easy prey for the liberal/evil ads, will not actually vote, but will only “think about” voting–if they could vote on their I-phones, they might do it, but these days, there are quite a few 20-somethings who don’t know how to drive and still live with their parents and spend much of their time in their bedrooms on their phones and playing video games with people across the country that they’ve never met in person. Hopefully we Baby Boomers (and there are still quite a lot of us!), and even some of the generation before us who still have their health, will come out in force to cast votes for candidates that are actually qualified to lead.
You think like a Boomer. The days of “I can be a serious Christian and still vote for Democrats” passed a long time ago. The 1960s are over. Time to get with the program.
I too am a Boomer, from one of the most liberal blue states in the nation, was a Democrat raised by Depression-era, FDR/JFK Democrats, and I haven’t voted for a Democrat since 1984, when I held my breath, voted for Reagan, and realized that the ceiling wasn’t going to crash down on my head. I haven’t voted for or thought or spoken like a Democrat since then, and I know others of my generation like me. Please don’t make generalizations like “think like a Boomer.” I know all sorts of Boomers who think all sorts of ways.
Well, if it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck…
As a Boomer, you need to assume responsibility for the fact that much of the decay evident in our culture can be laid at your feet. We’re the ones who have to clean up the mess you all made of things.
You get no argument from me there, but don’t be surprised if 40 or 50 years from now — should the Lord delay His coming — someone from a future generation makes the same statement to you and your generation. It’s the same claim Boomers made to *their* parents.
People’s birth years don’t define them anymore than people’s sexual attractions do. I don’t think we should be categorizing folks that way.
The Democrat Party has changed for the worse over the years. Some people have come to realize that, some not.
Thank you JD Vance! I am a 70 year old cradle Catholic and I have never felt more threatened by the Harris/ Walz ticket! Let us ask our Divine Master, Jesus Christ to intervene in this election.
“When two or more are gathered….”
Amen
Doesn’t the definition of “abandoned” imply that at one time they were with us? Maybe someone can remind me when that was the case.
Which Catholics, the Baptized Catholics who are being persecuted for affirming that God, The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque), Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, and desire to affirm their Baptismal Promises, in public and in private, or the Baptized Catholics who no longer profess that God, The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Is The Author of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, having defected from The Catholic Faith, no longer affirm their Baptismal Promises?
I don’t think it exercising prudential judgment to put the codes for our nuclear weapons in the hands of an imbecile.
I think many Catholics assumed the Democrat Party was with us decades ago. I’m pretty sure the GOP wasn’t. But in truth, we shouldn’t be putting our trust in politics in the first place. I’m just voting GOP because I can’t vote in good conscience for the other side.
Did you see that lady from Brazil who went through the line when Trump was serving? She asked him to not let the US become Brail, apparently a bunch of crooks?
Is anyone reading this from Brazil? are the politicians there crooks?
I have no idea about Brazil but politicians & crookedness seem to be a universal feature.
Prophets such as Ryszard Legutko and Michael Hanby are warning about the fusion of democracy and liberalism into a super-theory which permits no competing political ideologies, ushering in progress in the form of technocracy.
In regards to Catholic foundational views on the family, such a technocracy might bring to mind its ultimate expression in the process of in vitro fertilization, for which Vance is a willing contributor.
If that is due to political expediency, one wonders about the degree to which future expediency will make the “lesser of two evils” indistinguishable.
Mrs. Whitlock above – I wouldn’t invest too much hope in Baby Boomers.
From what I can see, they/we are the ones who bought “the spirit of Vatican II” and betrayed the faith. (Viz. Biden, Pelosi et al.)
I feel just as abandoned by Trump and Vance, who basically told pro-life voters to get lost. He has some chutzpah saying something like that.
I an hope that Harris, the Democratic Party will realize what being a Democratic stands for. The Democratic party has become extremely liberal. Do realize all people, no matter what their gender, sex, race, religion, etc. need to be represented but it seems, at lest to me, that the pendulum has swung too far. There is no way I can vote for Tramp. And I am leery of Vance’s version of Catholicism. So staying Democratic.
Politics on fire.
I am no fan of Harris/Walz, but Vance’s statements and his duplicit blind support of a demented convicted lying felon should cause one to pause and reflect.
Vance: “Any woman who remains childless is a cat lady. She should pay higher taxes. The Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating cats and dogs”. Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and the Mayor quickly refuted that claim. That lie prompted threats of bombings causing havoc and the closings of schools.
His previously damning statements included, “Trump was an American Hitler. He is unfit to hold office”.
At the debate with Walz, he evaded the question if he thought the 2024 election was fair. Often issuing deflective lies.
Trump’s unbelievable and off message in Greensboro, NC about Arnold Palmer’s “manhood” discovered by fellow pros in a shower. “Trump didn’t really mean that”. Palmer’s daughter Peg Palmer Wears said her father often doubted Trump’s mental state. Add to that Trump’s recent in-your-face rants: There was a peaceful transfer of power on 1/6/21. “It was a day of LOVE”! After he bellowed at the Eclipse on that dark day, “Go down to the Capitol and fight like hell”. Then reclining to the Oval Office to watch the mayhem on the dining room TV for hours. Then Meadows taking calls even from Donald. Jr and Evonka to stop the riot he finally appeared to say, “go home now, we love you”.
Not only does Vance have blind support for Trump, sadly it is my faith that has been shaken by the recent adoration of Trump at the Al Smith dinner by my Bishop Cardinal Dolan.
Conclusion: If I am to remain a patriotic American I must put country ahead of politics. Hope everyone can do the same.
I’m putting my country and family first and voting for Trump. Politics comes last.
Trump’s politics sway you? How and why?
I don’t understand. Please elaborate if you can. How is voting for Trump putting your country and family first.
More Trump Derangement Syndrome on display, par for the course.
My wife and I cast our vote today for Trump/J.D. here in Virginia. I also reached out to some Amish in PA with whom we did business earlier this year to do the same. Their reply: “More Amish than ever before are getting out to vote.” Now if we can do something to stop the defrauding of elections in this country, we might someday return to being a democratic Republic.
Good for you Deacon Edward. I’m going to try & do the same thing on my way home this evening.
It’s interesting about the Amish. I read they were active supporters of Mr. Trump in 2020 also.
Actually, I’m surprised to learn that the Amish are voting at all. Maybe I’m desperately behind the times, but I was under the impression that the Amish don’t vote as a sign of their separation from the world. I have among my in-laws some “conservative” — i.e., plain — Mennonites, and although I know that some less traditional Mennonites vote, those of my in-laws’ conference eschew voting. (One of these in-laws explained why to me; frankly, I thought it sounded like political Christian Science.)
Just can’t understand the reason behind voting for Trump. If if is the abortion issues, can’t you see what all he wants to do is dangerous, for all of us?
No but I do see the dangers in a Harris administration. She has clearly spelled out her intentions.
I do not feel abandoned by Biden/Harris or the Democrats in general.
The Church, yes.
The Dems, no. Not at all.
(Edit: I just want to make clear I am in no way supporting the Biden/Harris or the Democrats. Never have. Never will.)
Until I heard his humorous remarks at the traditional Al Smith Catholic dinner in NYC in the presence of the Cardinal, I did not know that DT had saved the Catholic schools of NY, after the then Cardinal asked for his help. He made some phone calls and in 15 minutes he got several million for the Catholic schools. Amazing. Watch this. It is also very funny. He starts talking at min 2:50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAwbHmrplak
Harris opposes even religious exceptions for abortion: ‘During an interview with NBC News on Tuesday, 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris said that religious exemptions on providing abortion would not be on the table for her because we shouldn’t “be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body.”’ The choice for a Christian in the coming election is not difficult. One candidate appointed judges to the Supreme Court who overthrew the unconstitutional Roe v. Wade, and a candidate who will leave it to the citizens of each state, in our federal republic, to decide on abortion limits and acceptance. The other candidate promises to make the right to abortion under all circumstances and lengths of gestation a national law regardless of the views of the citizens of each state, even the most Christian states in the republic. And in four years in office one candidate gave us a booming economy, secure borders, peace abroad, energy self-sufficient, lower inflation, and so forth. The other candidate is in an administration that is doing the opposite of all this and destroying our country. BTW, please publicize the video in youtube made by Dr. Anthony Levatino, M.D., Obstetrician, Gynecologist and former abortionist. It is a sobering description of the process of abortion at various stages of gestation. It should be known by the general public especially young women who in school are not told the true details of the matter. This is the link; again, post it in social media if you can:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l7lTMzEs8E
except the mRna shot
Harris imposes that “we shouldn’t ‘be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body’.”
This is not a political moment, it’s another Galileo Moment. It’s about the unwillingness to notice through the telescope–or now “fundamental” embryology, or fiber optics, or the ultrasound, or even the delivery table!–that there’s more than one body.
mrs. Thank you for your frank response. However, your adoration of Trump is an admission that he can say and do anything he pleases. We should take the serious words from many of Trump’s advisers and military Generals.
COS General John Kelly, “he is the core of a fascist dictator. Kelly: “He did say at the National Cemetery where our fallen heroes who saved our country from wars in order to protect us and Trump, who faked heel spurs and not spending an hour in service to his country, “They are all suckers and losers”.
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper has called him a “threat to democracy.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence has declined to endorse him, citing “profound differences.”
Sarah Matthews, a former Trump aide who testified before the House Jan. 6 committee and is among those warning about the threat he poses, said it’s “mind-boggling” how many members of his senior staff have denounced him.
Others: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, John Bolton, General Mattis, Even Bill Barr, Trump’s former attorney general who has not ruled out voting for him again, has referred to Trump as “a consummate narcissist” who “constantly engages in reckless conduct that puts his country and his political followers at risk.”
And the beat goes on…
Convictions for January 6.
Steve Bannon, “Watch tomorrow All Hell Is Going To Break Loose’ before Capitol Attack” Sidney Powell, ROGER STONE, ALLEN WEISSELBERG, PETER NAVARRO, MICHAEL FLYNN, (Marshall law, call out the military), Kenneth Chesebro, (fake electors), Jenna Ellis.
I know that I missed something.
PBS News: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/former-trump-officials-are-among-the-most-vocal-opponents-of-returning-him-to-the-white-house
Mr. Morgan, where in my comments do you detect Trump adoration?
mrsc. I didn’t intend to upset you. I should not have sent it to you in a reply, rather as a new post.
Thank you.
God bless
I wasn’t upset Mr. Morgan, just puzzled. I’m sure there must be people who are devoted to Pres. Trump in that way but I’ve never expressed adoration. I’m just making the best choice I can between the only 2 viable candidates on the ballot this year.
No one is adoring anyone, and it’s inappropriate and dishonest to frame the discussion in that way. People are looking carefully at the issues and the different candidates, none of whom are perfect. But some are less imperfect than others. A Harris presidency, which you support as indicated in your many posts, would be an unmitigated disaster politically, economically, and spiritually. You don’t occupy the moral high ground.
With every passing day Kamala shows herself to be more and more of an airhead, whilst Timmy is a self-confessed ‘knucklehead’.
Meanwhile a man who is CLEARLY in increasing cognitive decline presides in the White House.
The democratic party will have to answer to history for this.
WOW, Terrance. True Biden has shown mental decline, but you seem to miss the current mental instability of Trump. When I voted for him in 2016 he was sharp, concise and clear. Today, during his campaign, he rants off issue with his personal diatribe. Asked if he had a plan for improving healthcare? He said that he had an outline! That alone causes me to not vote for him. I see none of this from Harris.
Right. Because Harris has been a model of clarity and honesty throughout her campaign 🙄.