JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP) — At least two Baptist churches reportedly were destroyed in Florida and 21 others damaged Oct. 24 as Hurricane Wilma cut a diagonal swath across the southern tip of the state, which has weathered eight hurricanes in 15 months.
The destruction at Westside Baptist Church in Boynton Beach was total, according to officials of the Florida Baptist Convention. The sanctuary of Graham Baptist Church in Miami was destroyed. Both churches are on Florida's east coast, where damage was worse than expected as Wilma exited the peninsula into the Atlantic Ocean.
Several other churches received serious damage. First Baptist of Big Coppitt in the Florida Keys was flooded. First Baptist of Ft. Lauderdale reported “pretty heavy damage.” And First Baptist of Lake Worth reported severe roof damage and the loss of $6,000 worth of new playground equipment.
Wilma was blamed for the deaths of five Floridians. Six million people were left without power, while damage to property was estimated to exceed $10 billion.
Even before Wilma made landfall with 110-plus-mph winds, Florida Baptist disaster-relief teams were being mobilized to the storm area.
Florida Baptists prepared to minister on two fronts — along the west coast south of Naples, where the hurricane made landfall, and along the east coast in the highly populated Fort Lauderdale and Miami corridor.
“We are concerned that there are extensive human needs to be met along the [less populated] east coast, where the income levels … are lower,” said Fritz Wilson, director of the Florida Baptist men's department.
Brenda Forlines, director of Florida Baptist church and community ministries, said she is apprehensive about the condition of the migrants living in the interior towns of Immokalee, LaBelle and Belle Glade near Lake Okeechobee. “These are people who have no place to go and are without means to help themselves. Many of these live in trailers on rural roads with no access to food, water and supplies.”
Two Florida Baptist feeding units were dispatched Oct. 24 from their pre-positioned location at a Baptist conference center in the middle of the state and were expected to start feeding storm victims Oct. 26.
The units had only just returned to Florida the week before from a six-week deployment in Hattiesburg, Miss., and Lake Charles, La., in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The units were also stationed in Pensacola following Hurricane Dennis. Throughout the three 2005 hurricane responses, Florida Baptist volunteers prepared 643,255 meals.
In addition to the Florida Baptist feeding units, 10 feeding units from other Baptist state conventions were gathering Oct. 24 in Marianna, in Florida's Panhandle, awaiting assignments.
In addition to the feeding units, other disaster-response teams are capable of tree removal and debris clean-up. Also teams of chaplains have been placed on stand-by, awaiting assignments.
Cecil Seagle, director of the Florida Baptists' mission division, reminded relief workers of their ultimate purpose. “If we miss this window of opportunity when people are open and willing to listen to a conversation about our Christian faith, we ought to get out of the business,” he told a group of volunteers in Jacksonville.
— Greg Warner contributed to his story.