Catholic Charities Providing help. Creating hope.

Catholic Charities workers survive Hurricane Charley and offer assistance to other victims 

By Judy Bokorney
The Florida Catholic Newspaper

ARCADIA--Sister Ann De Nicolo and Maria Maton, both staff at Catholic Charities of DeSoto County, immediately responded to the needs of the people in the Arcadia community after Hurricane Charley ripped through the town and caused mass destruction. They placed the concerns of the victims first, even though they too were victims of the powerful act of Mother Nature.

Sister De Nicolo, program director, drives every day to Arcadia from Punta Gorda to run the busy operations of the hurricane recovery center at the Catholic Charities offices there. After a long, hot day she returns to a home she is taking refugee in with no power, water that has to be boiled and part of the roof missing. “The people are so needy here in Arcadia. We are the charities. The people know to come here and they are coming in everyday all day long,” she said.

Though Sister De Nicolo is ignoring her own needs and focusing on her job of providing assistance, she will never forget living through Hurricane Charley. “I have never experienced anything like this in my life,” said Sister De Nicolo. “ My neighborhood looks like a war zone.”

Sister De Nicolo, who lives in Punta Gorda, along with roommate Sister Colleen McGuinnity sat in their condo on Friday, Aug. 13 and watched the local weather forecaster on television try to predict the path of Hurricane Charley. “In the afternoon, the weatherman said that the storm is coming into Charlotte Harbor and that the people in our town needed to get into a safe room. Since we are not directly on the water, we did not think we would be hit very hard. We were wrong,” she said.

The two women hid under a mattress and sat in a hallway between their utility room and bathroom. “The winds picked up quickly and we heard the aluminum ripping off a nearby gas station. Then the winds became violent and our ears clogged. A very loud swishing sound happened and our ears unplugged. There was lots of ripping, banging and snapping sounds,” Sister De Nicolo described.

The eye of the storm then came over. Sister De Nicolo and Sister McGuinnity looked outside. They noticed roof tiles and wrought iron ripped from their building. They also noticed the cars in the parking lot of the row of condos across the way were covered in debris like wood frames and insulation. Their cars were not. “The people across the way yelled out ‘Your roof is gone’ and we realized the debris on top of their cars was our roof,” Sister De Nicolo said. There are three floors in her building. Fortunately her condo is on the first floor.

The women also witnessed a camper missing from the parking lot, sections of other apartments missing, a steel pipe piercing a palm tree, and a two by four piece of wood through the length of a car.

Sister De Nicolo and Sister McGuinnity went back into their condo and road out the rest of the storm in their safe room. After, they gathered as many belongings as they could because water was flooding their dwelling and the floors above were starting to collapse.

“It was dangerous just to walk out of our condo,” De Nicolo said. The two women loaded their car with a few belongings and went to check on the winter home of Sister McGuinnity’s parents a few miles away. “Driving the few miles was also dangerous with downed power lines and debris everywhere,” she said.

Though Sister McGuinnity’s parents home suffered damage to the pool cage, front porch and doors and roof, the two women eventually decided to reside there since their condo was destroyed. “At first we drove up Tamiami Trail all the way to Osprey looking for hotel rooms but there was none. So we just drove back home to Punta Gorda,” she said.

With the ingenuity of using the only available materials of plastic ceiling tile, wood scraps and the pool cover, the two Sisters temporarily repaired the roof so they could keep out the rain.

“It was so scary,” Sister De Nicolo said. “But I am inspired by all the volunteers who come here to Arcadia everyday to help us serve the victims. Thank God for them.”

Maria Maton, director of the After School Tutoring Program at Catholic Charities, lives in Arcadia and had a house full of 13 relatives who live in Bradenton and came to stay and get away from the hurricane.

“When the storm changed its path and came to Arcadia, I thought if something happens to all of us how will I face this and help them,” Maton said. The storm slightly damaged Maton’s home and downed all but one tree in her yard. That tree, which was closest to the house and has no leaves left on it, is registered as one of the oldest on the East Coast and famous in Arcadia. “That tree is our Angel. It saved our lives. It is so big that it protected our home,” she said.

Once Maton knew everyone in her home was safe, she began to worry for her neighbors and her Catholic Charities clients. “We immediately checked on our neighbors and we heard the Turner Civic Center shelter had collapsed,” she said. “I had instructed many of my migrant families who are my clients to go there if the hurricane was bad because they live in unsafe trailers. I felt so guilty. But I did not cry because I did not want to scare my family.”

The people seeking shelter at the Turner Civic Center were unharmed despite the collapsed roof and Maton eventually heard the good news. Maton’s husband suffers from diabetes and appeared shaken and ill from the ordeal. She drove him to Bradenton to stay with relatives for a few days while she returned to Arcadia to open the Catholic Charities offices.

“Saturday morning after the storm we cleared trees at my home and stood up a few so they looked straight again,” she said. “That brought my spirits up. That made me think that I don’t need to cry. I don’t need to fret. I need to get up and help those who are worse off than me.”

Photo #1: Sister Ann De Nicolo (left), and Sister Marianne Ridgell (right), both employees of Catholic Charities in Arcadia, offer hurricane assistance to Maria Bessara (center). Sister De Nicolo lost her home to Hurricane Charley.

Photo #2: Maria Maton, a Catholic Charities employee, lived through Hurricane Charley and then immediately opened the doors of Catholic Charities of Arcadia to assist victims like herself.