OBLATES IN SOUTH FLORIDA

WEATHER HURRICANE FRANCES

The weekend of September 4-5, 2004, will be a memorable one for the Oblates who live and minister in South Florida.  The Oblates in the 7 parishes in the Archdiocese of Miami, the pre-novitiate in Miramar, and the two parishes in the Palm Beach Diocese all came through "Hurricane Frances" unscathed.

Since warnings had been posted for over a week, the Oblates, like hundreds of thousands of others, did have time to get their flashlight batteries renewed, their cell phones charged, and where possible, shutters on their windows.

Actually, Frances came to land north of the parishes in West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach.  Fr. Art Obin, OMI, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi in Riviera Beach reported some missing shingles from the roof here and there.  Both St. Francis and St. John Fisher (Fr. Terry Figel, pastor) were still without electricity on September 6, and they had no idea when power would be restored.

The folks in Miami-Dade and Broward counties experienced mostly the "feeder bands" of the hurricane, with wind and rain.  There were also temporary power outages as well as an occasional leaky roof.

To celebrate Labor Day/Post-Frances on September 6, several of the Oblates in the Miami area and the pre-novices got together for their traditional holiday picnic at St. Monica's parish.  Now they are watching the weather forecasts for "Hurricane Ivan."