WEST WARWICK – When you enter the pristine and peaceful chapel at Sacred Heart Church, it’s almost impossible to believe that just one year ago the sacred space where many devout parishioners gather for Mass every morning was ruined by crashing floodwaters that tossed pews, saturated missalettes, destroyed vestments and left floors covered with mud.
A five-and-a-half-foot wall of murky floodwaters, created when the nearby Pawtuxet River crested its banks and combined with rainwater deposited from a series of tumultuous rainstorms, pummeled the church property during March 30-31, 2010, destroying the chapel and causing considerable damage to adjacent church basement, parish hall and religious education center.
The flooding was among the worst in the state’s history in two centuries. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, when taken on an aerial tour of the flood-ravaged state, described the flood damage as “significant.” Homes and cars along the Pawtuxet River were submerged, hundreds of people were forced from their homes and thousands of individuals lost power.
According to Father Richard A. Bucci, pastor of Sacred Heart Church, while the waters receded on April 1, the flooding caused the cancelation of all parish Holy Week activities. Most parishioners attended Easter Masses at nearby St. Joseph Church, located on top of a hill, which remained unscathed while the much of surrounding area below was heavily damaged or destroyed.
“I was taken out by boat,” recalled Father Bucci, noting that he was transported by West Warwick firefighters to a drop-off point on Prospect Hill after traveling through the neighborhood to pick up other stranded residents.
After spending two nights at a parishioner’s home, the pastor stayed at Our Lady of Grace rectory in Johnston, before returning on April 23 to Sacred Heart, where he celebrated Mass two days later.
While Sacred Heart Church was temporarily closed, Father Bucci returned to the heavily-damaged neighborhood on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 11, to concelebrate a special Mass presided over by Bishop Thomas J. Tobin at St. Joseph Church.
“It was substantial, there is no doubt about it,” Father Bucci said, referring to the calamity that initially began when rainwater collected in the rear of the church – an area with a high water table that was already saturated by previous storms that had caused lesser flooding in the community two weeks earlier.
According to the pastor, cost of repairs made to the church property cost $1.2 million, which included $325,000 for cleanup that was conducted by SERVPRO Industries, a Houston, Texas-based company whose workers are specially trained in disaster restoration. The repairs and the cleanup were covered by insurance.
Repairs to the chapel, which reopened last November, included the installation of new pews, painting walls, and cleaning the floor and leaded stained glass windows.
The church hall required an extensive makeover as well. The refurbishment included a completely renovated kitchen with new appliances. The hall opened in February in time for a Valentine’s Day parish social.
Four new boilers – two in the church, and one each in the rectory and religious education center, were installed as part of the renovation.
Father Bucci emphasized that he was grateful that the main church was not harmed. On Palm Sunday, two days before the floods, he celebrated Mass at the marble altar that belonged to the former St. Teresa Church in Providence where Father Bucci enjoyed his first permanent assignment after being ordained in 1973.
While a house located across the street from the church is still under repair and many local businesses remain shuttered, Father Bucci noted that many of his parishioners were “drastically affected” by the floods – some forced out of their homes for eight or nine months.
“I don’t think that there are many who had flood insurance,” he said.
Father Bucci noted that many of his parishioners rallied to help the parish after the flood, despite their own concerns. The names of several benefactors who purchased new vestments in memory or honor of a loved one are inscribed on a plaque located in the chapel.
Paul Boisclair, the church sexton and a West Warwick firefighter, said that miraculously, a statue of the Blessed Mother was not broken or muddied considering it was carried from it where it had stood by rising waters.
“Her veil was spotless,” remarked Boisclair, who has been a Sacred Heart parishioner for 23 years.
“Everything was tossed about,” he emphasized. “It looked like a war zone.”
At Our Lady of Czestochowa Church in Coventry, floodwaters destroyed much of the parish hall, furniture and materials used by the religious education program.
“By August, we were back in operation,” said Father Stephen P. Amaral, pastor. “Luckily the flood came toward the end of the religious education program, so the impact wasn’t as severe as it could have been.
Father Amaral emphasized that while the floods displaced a few of his parishioners, many other members of the parish, who were able to stay in their homes, had to contend with flooded basements. But despite their own personal tragedies, the pastor said their hearts were with their parish and their neighbors.
“They were more concerned about us and other people,” he recalled.
Throughout the crisis, the diocese provided resources to help many of those impacted by the flooding.
According to the Office of Catholic Charities and Community Services, the diocese provided approximately $60,000 in flood assistance through September for gift cards used to purchase essential items and hotel vouchers in the immediate aftermath of the flood. Funds were later distributed to provide housing assistance for displaced families, pay utility bills and to make plumbing repairs to homes affected by the flood.
