SUMMERSVILLE, W. Va. (ABP) — “Ivan the Terrible” is finally gone, but Baptist volunteers are just getting started cleaning up the mess he left — from the Caribbean to the Alleghenies.
The storm first made landfall in the United States Sept. 15 near Pensacola, Fla. But its lingering effects — tornadoes, straight-line wind damage and flooding from torrential rains — spread destruction along the East Coast as far north as West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
It also caused significant damage on several Caribbean islands, such as Jamaica, Grenada and the Bahamas.
As of Sept. 20, media reports indicated the storm and its after-effects had been responsible for 52 deaths in the United States and 70 in the Caribbean.
Several of those deaths took place Sept. 17 in the mountains of western North Carolina.
North Carolina Baptist disaster-relief volunteer Glen Holland lives near Franklin, N.C., where a massive landslide destroyed a number of homes and took several lives.
Holland, who had been working as a volunteer in Canton, arrived at home 40 minutes before the landslide struck. His son's home was knocked from its foundation, and many of his neighbors' homes were destroyed. Holland stayed and ministered through the night with a pregnant woman in the area who was trapped between two trees, lost her unborn child, and had to have a leg amputated. The woman's son also died in the landslide.
N.C. Baptist Men started serving meals out of the fellowship hall at Pine Grove (N.C.) Baptist Church on Sept. 21, said Mark DeBardelaben, a deacon at the church that is situated about a mile from where the landslide hit. Recovery teams are also working in the area, he said.
Harold Ball, pastor of First Baptist Church in Franklin, said North Carolina Baptist volunteers are helping people get back on their feet.
“We've sure been blessed with the disaster-relief people here,” he said. “They've been a great blessing and still are.”
In addition, North Carolina Baptist disaster-relief units are set up at churches in Clyde, Canton and Spruce Pine, N.C. Many of those towns had already experienced flooding a week earlier, due to rains from Hurricane Frances.
In Pensacola, volunteers coordinated through the Florida Baptist Convention have set up an operations center at the city's Olive Baptist Church. Oklahoma Baptist disaster-relief volunteers have been working there, feeding area residents and relief workers.
At Pensacola's First Baptist Church, located prominently at the crest of the port city's Palafox Hill, about 90 people gathered in the chapel for worship Sept. 19. Normally, the church's Sunday-morning services draw more than 1,000 worshipers. Many of its facilities — including the congregation's historic and ornate sanctuary — suffered significant wind and water damage from the storm.
“In times like this it's important for the people of God to come together to reflect on our blessings. A lot of people have needs,” said Pastor Robert Mills, who had resigned from the church on the Sunday before Ivan struck but continues to lead the church members through these trying days.
“Who could have ever guessed that in a week's time so much would have changed?” Mills asked the congregation.
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has set up a staging center at the church for disaster workers under the supervision of David Harding, the Fellowship's international coordinator for emergency response and transformational development. In addition, a group of volunteer relief workers from First Baptist Church of Tallahassee has been dispatched to Pensacola.
CBF is shutting down its relief work with migrant workers affected by previous hurricanes Charley and Frances in Hardee County, Fla., to focus efforts on the Pensacola area.
In Alabama, CBF's state affiliate is attempting to coordinate relief efforts in parts of that state hard-hit by Ivan's winds. Alabama CBF Coordinator Mart Gray said volunteers were assessing needs Sept. 21 in anticipation of asking for relief workers from CBF churches in less-needy parts of the state.
“Right now, we're just trying to get a handle on things,” Gray said. “We're focusing on some of the inland areas — we're doing scouting work in Evergreen, Bruton, some of the areas that might not be on the maps and minds of others.”
As of Sept. 20, there were still hundreds of thousands of customers without power in the Florida Panhandle and in southern parts of Georgia and Alabama. Downed trees and high winds caused roof damage to many houses in the region.
“The damage inland in Alabama was not as catastrophic as the coastline damage, but was just as severe in terms of the numbers of people who were affected,” Gray said. “We will probably try to just provide some volunteer connections for roof repair — just basically making the house sound.”
Baptist volunteers also are focusing on Ivan's wrath in the Caribbean. Texas Baptist Men are collecting relief supplies — hygiene items, sleeping bags, pots, pans, non-perishable food, chainsaws, generators and communication equipment — to distribute in the hard-hit nation of Grenada.
Reports indicated that as many as 90 percent of Grenada's buildings were damaged or destroyed in the storm. Grenada accounted for 28 of the storm's deaths. The island nation's government has requested volunteers from Texas Baptist Men to do preliminary counseling, medical and damage assessments.
Earlier, Ivan caused heavy damage in the Bahamas. Church World Service and the Progressive National Baptist Convention worked together to send 5,000 hygiene kits to the Deliverance Baptist Center in Freeport, Bahamas. The kits are being distributed to local families through the center to prevent disease in the storm's aftermath. PNBC is a historically African-American denomination, and CWS is the humanitarian arm of the World Council of Churches.
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— Barbara Denman of the Florida Baptist Convention, Steve DeVane of the (North Carolina) Biblical Recorder, and John Hall of the Baptist General Convention of Texas contributed to this story.