VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (ABP) — The American Baptist Churches USA has released a total of $17,500 for relief work in Florida and Cuba, parts of which were devastated by Hurricane Charley.
The ABC's National Ministries office released $10,000 in disaster-relief funds to Church World Service for use in Florida. CWS is the relief arm of the National Council of Churches.
“This recovery is going to take years,” said Melina Pavlides, a CWS staff member. “We need to champion the cause of communities where other groups are not going.”
American Baptists' World Relief Office also sent $7,500 to the Fraternity of Baptist Churches in Cuba for relief work in that island nation. Charley swept across western Cuba a day before making landfall just north of Fort Myers, Fla., Aug. 13.
Cuban Baptist leader Manolo Delgado told American Baptist News Service that western Cuba experienced extensive damage to utility lines and trees. “But the most impressive thing was the destruction of people's homes,” he said. “The roofs were torn off houses and there were homes that were completely destroyed. This was caused by the straight-line winds and the trees that had been uprooted and felled.”
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