Ahead of Hurricane Milton, St. Petersburg priest checks in with neighbors

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (OSV News) — A St. Petersburg priest who is also president of the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors took time out Oct. 8 to check on his elderly neighbors before Hurricane Milton was expected to make landfall the next night in this Gulf Coast region.

“I went across the street to see who is staying and who is not, and we have an elderly couple from Hungary who just got back from vacation — I wanted to see if they were safe,” said Father Chuck Dornquast, who is director of vocations for the Diocese of St. Petersburg and lives in a residential area near the diocesan chancery and St. Petersburg Catholic High School.

He is also president of the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors.

“Unfortunately the Hungarian couple just got back from vacation in time for this. I also knocked on the doors of other elderly neighbors and gave them a number in case they need anything,” Father Dornquast told OSV News. “Half the neighborhood has chosen to evacuate.”

In addition, some local clergy who live in evacuation zones have already left the area, while one of the state’s Catholic seminarians on the Florida East Coast has offered emergency lodging to its seminarians and their families this week, according to Father Dornquast.

On Oct. 8, news media reported continued heavy outbound traffic as Tampa-area residents fled to other parts of the state.

Hurricane Milton was already being described as historically one of the most powerful storms in the Gulf of Mexico and has twice garnered Category 5 strength as of Oct. 8 — some 24 hours before it is expected to bring catastrophic water and wind damage to the Florida west coast.

Milton is expected to start making landfall at or near the Tampa Bay region late at night Oct. 9 before traveling inland, likely retaining hurricane status as it impacts central Florida towns including Orlando and Daytona beach before exiting the state into the Atlantic.

Likely taking direct impact will be the dioceses of Venice and St. Petersburg, along with Orlando and possibly other Florida regions.

Father Dornquast said Bishop Gregory L. Parkes of St. Petersburg has publicly asked for prayers in advance of the hurricane and that the bishop was expected to himself evacuate from his home, joining the vocations director and several other clergy in riding out the storm where Father Dornquast lives near the chancery.

The block building house is a kind of headquarters in times of a big storm, he added.

“We are set with water, food, we have (impact) windows, a block building, and generator — and we are on the same property as the chancery and St. Pete Catholic.”

Several priests who were forced to leave a flooded rectory at St. John Vianney Parish in St. Petersburg following this month’s Hurricane Helene are currently staying there as well.

Father Dornquast estimated that four parishes were significantly impacted by flood waters during Hurricane Helene, and another 10 to 15 parishes reported having member families severely impacted.

“Helene was fairly noneventful for us here where I am, but there was deep sadness for our friends at St. John Vianney Parish, the beach communities, in the Hillsboro area and into South Tampa where some friends’ houses had water damage, he said.

Taking no chances with Milton, Father Dornquast said he made good on a thought that he had had during previous storms or other crises such as the coronavirus pandemic: He traveled across town Oct. 8 to a historical site and offered a Holy Hour and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.

The location he chose was St. Petersburg’s Jungle Prada, a public park, archaeological site and waterfront bluff along the intracoastal waterway in St. Petersburg where historians believe Native Americans once lived in a village complex for 600 years.

It is also believed to be the site where a Spanish missionary priest, Franciscan Father Juan Xuarez, celebrated one of the first Easter Masses in North America in 1528.

“It is not the first time I thought about doing that but it was the first time I actually did it,” Father Dornquast told OSV News. “I thought of times of COVID when priests went through their neighborhood (doing an exposition of the Blessed Sacrament) or in the case of a hurricane. A lot of my priest friends have done that.”

At the park, “I gave benediction and asked for the Lord to calm the waters and for Our Lady to keep us safe,” he added. “I think every storm (merits our prayers) and Helene served as a wake up call for many, and many thankfully are taking this one very seriously.”

Bishop Parkes, he said, asked all his diocesan clergy to celebrate during the week the votive Mass used in the event of storms, and to continue doing so until the situation passes.

Father Dornquast said he planned to spend the evening of Oct. 9 into the next day in prayer, and that he will be following his favorite weatherman and meteorologist, Paul Dellegatto of Fox 13 TV Tampa Bay, along with some weather websites he trusts.

“I have been really proud of how the diocese has been responding to the needs and the damages (following Hurricane Helene,” he said.

“And so I am confident that on the other side (of Milton) we will find ways to be available to our people. I know the Lord will be with us and to have the confidence that the creator of the cosmos permits himself to be with us during storms is a consolation. He is ‘in the boat with us.'”

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