Details sparse on Rita's damage to Lake Charles Diocese

Published: 2005-09-28

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In the days after Hurricane Rita hit communities along the Texas-Louisiana border Sept. 24, information about the extent of any damage in the Diocese of Lake Charles, La., was sparse. New reports Sept. 28 said that highways leading to Lake Charles, La., which took much of the brunt of the storm, remained blocked to residents wanting to return. Morris LeBleu, director of communications for the Lake Charles Diocese and editor of its diocesan newspaper, The Southwest Catholic, sent Catholic News Service an e-mail from Baton Rouge, La., Sept. 27 reporting on some conditions in his diocese. He said videotape footage he saw of the area showed that in lower Cameron Parish, the civil entity in the southernmost part of the diocese, "all churches are either gone or severely damaged. Though I am unable to verify the damage, those churches are within a mile or two of the Gulf of Mexico," he wrote. LeBleu listed seven parish and mission churches. Several other churches apparently suffered severe damage, he said, though he did not have many details.

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