Catholic Charities help save lives during the winter freeze

Catholic Charities and Mother Teresa Shelter partnered with the City of Corpus Christi, the Gulf Coast Humane Society and the American Red Cross to provide shelter, food, bedding and warm clothing to area homeless before, during and after historic freezing temperatures hit Corpus Christi. The effort probably saved over 190 lives. 

Before the freeze hit on Feb. 13, the sister agencies worked closely with the city and other local agencies by providing clients with information on city warming centers and emergency overflow shelters.

During that first night of the freeze, the first warming shelter, the American Bank Center, lost power, and 130 people remained in the cold and dark with a handful of staff members. This dedicated staff walked around with flashlights covering clients with blankets until the morning hours. The staff members included Catholic Charities Director Angie Garcia, Mother Teresa Shelter employees Gerry Burns and Daniel Ramirez, and Directory of Social Ministries, Jaime Reyna from the Diocese of Corpus Christi. 

Due to the Center’s power outage, staff from the fire department provided a transportation van, a pickup truck and an ambulance for those who weren’t completely mobile and slowly began transporting them to the next warming center, Del Mar College-West Campus FEMA Dome. “The clients did really well and were very kind and patient through this whole process,” Garcia said.

Garcia remained in close contact with Mayor Paulette Guajardo during that first night of the freeze. “We got a lot of support from her because she wanted to know how we were. Once we lost power, she was texting me, she was calling me. She would say, ‘OK, please tell me how bad it is?’ And I told her, no lights. It’s cold. You know, lots of folks in here, and we’re walking around with flashlights.” 

Garcia said it was a very emotional time for her because she knew from the experience what many of the homeless were going through. “When I came to work for Catholic Charities, it was because I wanted to help people,” she said. “And I literally got to live that experience of what they go through, trying to stay warm and seeking shelter to save their lives and wondering when the next meal will come.”

Once they transitioned to the FEMA dome, some of the Catholic Charities staff and the Mother Teresa Shelter worked 20-hour days. “I got to work on the other end of it at the Mother Theresa shelter alongside the staff and watch them do that amazing hard work of preparing three meals a day,” Garcia said. “In one day, we literally made meals for two days for 160 people.”

Warren Phipps, Executive Director of Catholic Charities, was also in the thick of this community outreach. He played a key role in transporting, preparing food and getting supplies to the warming shelter. His day would begin from his home in Portland around 3 a.m. since the Harbor Bridge was shut down, he would drive an alternate route through Odem to the Mother Teresa Shelter, so he could help prepare the food and transport it to the homeless at the FEMA dome. 

“Warren was very much like us – boots on the ground,” Garcia said. “He took that part during the day. And then I was on in the evenings to make sure that that the city staffers had that support from folks who work with the homeless day in and day out.” 

By Tuesday, Feb. 16, the shelter was full, so a second location was opened at the FEMA Dome in Calallen located at 4001 Wildcat Drive.

Volunteers and staff from the Mother Teresa Shelter prepped, transported and served over 2,500 meals to those seeking refuge in the City’s Emergency Overflow Shelters. These meals included breakfast tacos, waffles and sausage, pancakes and coffee for breakfast; enchiladas and salad, beef patties and salad, chicken and rice, spaghetti, chicken goulash, and sweets for lunch; soup and hot dogs, beef stew and rice, soup and sandwiches, and venison chili for dinner. 

In addition to serving meals at the City’s Emergency Overflow Shelters, the Mother Teresa Shelter continued to serve the 215 clients who braved the storm to make it to the Shelter. 

Staff members from the Mother Teresa Shelter and Catholic Charities, including their senior leadership, logged over 400 staff hours during the four days of the Texas Severe Winter Storm. With the American Red Cross’s help, they also set up cots, distributed over 100 blankets and sleeping bags to clients at the City’s Emergency Overflow Shelters. 

Clients were treated to a movie night sponsored by the Diocese of Corpus Christi, and Catholic Charities staff provided games, books, puzzles and coloring activities.

On Thursday, Feb. 18, Catholic Charities was able to open their food pantry and assist 47 households (121 persons) with food and coats as part of the early disaster response. On Friday and Saturday, Feb. 19-20, Catholic Charities distributed seven pallets of bottled water to the cities of Aransas Pass, Alice, and San Diego. 

Thanks to Catholic Charities and the Mother Teresa Shelter’s services, three homeless men moved into the Mother Teresa Transitional House for Men. These men will now be off of the streets – working towards becoming self-sufficient.

“We greatly appreciate the partnership with the City of Corpus Christi in this effort of compassion and empathy – put panic aside and provide relief for people in a life-threatening environment,” Phipps said. “There were a lot of lessons learned, but the biggest lesson learned is that it can be done.” 

Your donation and support make this work possible. We are grateful for your continued support and prayers, but many in our area are still struggling and need your help. 

Please consider donating to:

Mother Teresa Shelter, Inc. https://motherteresashelter.org/donate-to-mother-teresa-shelter or to Catholic Charities of Corpus Christi, Inc. https://catholiccharities-cc.org/give-to-catholic-charities

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Catholic Charities of Corpus Christi
www.catholiccharities-cc.org
615 Oliver Ct., Corpus Christi, Texas 78408 (361) 884-0651

Mother Teresa Shelter
www.motherteresashelter.org
513 Sam Rankin Ave., Corpus Christi, Texas 78401-2621,
(361) 883-7372