As Flood Waters Rise, Church uses Flocknote to text Members

Eight years ago, St. Patrick’s Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa suffered severely when seven feet of water hit their church campus due to city flooding. So when they heard about floodwaters possibly returning this fall, they decided they weren’t going to take a chance this time. By 11 a.m., staff at St. Patrick’s sent a text via Flocknote to their members asking for boxes to pack up the parish facilities.

“An hour later we had so many boxes Fr. Ivan’s garage was full,” said St. Patrick’s staff member Geralyn Ward.

Texting for Help

Throughout the week, they continued to give their members updates and send last-minute texts when help was needed.

“Hundreds of people responded,” said Geralyn. “We got a great response and we couldn’t have done it without Flocknote. If they couldn’t volunteer they were praying. It was a great way for people to feel involved even if they couldn’t help.”

Informing Members of Last Minute Cancellations

In addition to needing help preparing for the flood, meetings and other ministry affairs had to be cancelled and that weekend’s church services had to be switched to another church.

“We had a short period of time to tell them we had to switch locations for the weekend Masses,” said Geralyn.

St. Patrick in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Giving Thanks to Members

After the danger of the flood had passed, Fr. Ivan, the pastor at St. Patrick, wrote in the weekly bulletin:

“When we asked our parishioners for something via Flocknote texting we almost immediately received five phone calls with help and assistance. If we had not had Flocknote technology here at St. Pat’s we would have been severely limited in terms of preparing our parish facilities for the rising flood waters.”

Thanks to the preparation and prayers of their members, St. Patrick only had a couple of inches in their church basement this time – they are very relieved and thankful in comparison to what happened in the past!

Have you or your church done something really creative through Flocknote? If so, send us an email at help@flocknote.com and tell us more! You might just be the subject of our next Flocknotable!