Church across street from sugar-plant explosion becomes triage center

Published: 2008-02-08

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- After an explosion ripped through the Imperial Sugar refinery in the Savannah, Ga., suburb of Port Wentworth the night of Feb. 7, Father Michael Kavanaugh said, "I opened the church and turned on all the lights, and opened the parish hall and turned on all the lights, because I just knew there was going to be a crowd. And there was," said the priest, who is pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. The parish church is directly across the street from the plant. The church's front lawn served as a triage center for refinery workers injured in the blast. No exact count had been made, but an estimated 95-100 people were believed working in the plant when the explosion occurred. Six people had been unaccounted for the morning after the blast, and CNN reported at midday Feb. 8 that authorities had found three bodies. Father Kavanaugh, in a telephone interview with Catholic News Service from Port Wentworth, said he was writing thank-you notes -- "my birthday was Shrove Tuesday" -- at the time of the explosion. "It knocked me off my chair," he said. "It wasn't the concussion that got me. It was the noise."

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