As flood waters rose throughout Vermont during the torrential rains earlier this week, at least one Catholic parish opened its facilities for people who needed a place to wait out the flooding and make post-flood plans.

In Ludlow, Father Thomas Mosher, pastor of Annunciation Parish, opened the parish hall and parking lot to people who needed a place to stay Monday night.

About a dozen people slept in the parish hall, where a parishioner furnished a hot meal. Others parked their campers and stayed in the parking lot where still others found a safe place to leave their cars. “We’re on higher ground,” the pastor said.

“Word went out through the community, and people heard they could come,” Father Mosher said. “Really, there was nowhere else to go.”

The community center, designated for just such an emergency center, had been flooded.

“It’s one of the corporal works of mercy — shelter the homeless,” the pastor said, adding that people were not necessarily homeless but had to be evacuated from their homes because of the flooding.

He surveyed the “devastation” by car and noted many people were pumping water from their basements. Route 103 had been reopened, but many side roads were still closed and some bridges impassable. One mudslide left the railroad tracks the land had supported hanging like a clothesline. “Usually we have six trains a day passing through,” Father Mosher said.

Many people were asking “What, again?” he said, referring to the devastation that happened in Vermont during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

An updated survey of damage to church property indicated several churches and rectories had water in the basement, there were three properties with ceiling damage, and one church with minor exterior damage. The athletic fields of Mount St. Joseph Academy in Rutland were flooded. This information was provided by Peter Beauregard, director of properties, for the Diocese of Burlington.