Suffering its second flood in seven years, Franklin Baptist Church was closed for a week as waters from the swollen Blackwater River crept into town.
“During the Sunday we were out [of the building] we had a community service,” offered Sharon James, minister of education at the church. “The Episcopal Church was also flooded and the Presbyterian Church joined us. Lots of hymns and liturgies. It was quite an event.” Richard Childress, pastor of Franklin Baptist, and the other pastors officiated at the Oct. 15 service.
The problem for Franklin Baptist and much of the downtown area began when a nor'easter dumped a foot of rain on Isle of Wight County, which is upriver from Franklin. “Isle of Wight is experiencing a major building boom and rain that was once absorbed by the land now runs off into the river,” James said. “The Army Corps of Engineers has been studying the river and one of the problems seems to be the river is filling with debris. When tug boats ran up and down the river to the paper mill they kept the channel dredged. But that ended in 1995 because it wasnÕt cost effective for the mill.”
Franklin residents remember Hurricane Floyd and compare the recent flood to that. “It's strange,” James volunteered, “but people are encouraged by remembering how bad Floyd was. People are saying 'At least it's not as bad as it was before.' There's a sense of 'We can do this. We've been through worse.' ”
The church, too, counted its blessings. When word came on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 8, that the waters were rising and would spill over the river banks into the town the leadership put out a call to church members for help. “They came flooding in!” exclaimed James, seemingly unaware of the pun. “They removed all the furniture and everything else that could be moved and carried it to higher ground.”
Flood insurance will cover the cost of renovating the children's building and the church atrium in each of which about three feet of water stood when the river crested. “We have some outbuildings that we will have to take care of ourselves, but we had professionals ready to move into the church buildings as soon as the water receded and we got permission to go back in.” James estimates that repairs will take six weeks to complete.
Most business owners in the affected area will be covered by flood insurance. A few, however, determined the cost to be too great and did not get insurance or they had allowed coverage to lapse.
As with other disasters, the Virginia Baptist disaster relief team sprang into action and did a preliminary assessment to determine damage. According to James, “They and we believed things were pretty much under control. We told them, 'We'll call if we need you.' ”
Although the church will have to find alternate gathering places for some of its Sunday school classes, worship is slated to continue as scheduled.