Church leaps into response to severe weather as Lent begins
Julio and Josmery Campo of Houston unload framing lumber for their fireplaces Feb. 16, 2021, as the state of Texas experienced widespread power outages and record-breaking temperatures. (CNS photo/Callaghan O’Hare, Reuters)
By Dennis Sadowski
• Catholic News Service • Posted February 19, 2021
CLEVELAND (CNS) — Below-zero temperatures, teeth-chattering wind chills and deep snow turned the southern Plains into an Arctic landscape, forcing Catholic Charities agencies to adopt emergency measures to get people to safety.
Rolling power blackouts in Texas and Oklahoma left some families without heat for hours at a time, necessitating the opening of at least one church in the Diocese of Dallas to endangered people.