Some 130 Virginia Baptist volunteers spent the week of Feb. 7-11 on a disaster relief recovery trip to Punta Gorda, Fla.
The group ministered in an area hit hard by Hurricane Charlie last August-and which they had visited just days after the storm hit.
“Nearly six months later a lot of the debris has been cleared from the yards and streets, but the damage to homes and businesses is still evident,” said Jim George, project ministries and disaster relief coordinator for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board. “The emotional and spiritual scars remain as well. Into this disaster environment Virginia Baptists went to offer help and hope.”
About 95 percent of affordable, low-income housing was destroyed by the hurricane, said George. Before the storm 274 people were considered homeless in Charlotte County; today, 2,130 are homeless.
Virginia Baptists worked primarily in Punta Gorda, replacing roofs and repairing homes, but a team from Abingdon also worked in Fort Ogden and a recovery crew from Lynchburg worked in Avon Park.
During the week 20 homes were repaired and 630 volunteer days worked by the disaster relief volunteers. Paul and Gerri McDaniel of Roanoke and Leroy and Carolyn Williams of Mechanicsville led the team, along with Tom Cline, who organized meals for volunteers in Punta Gorda.
Earlier this year, in January, a team of 32 people from the Petersburg and Henry County Baptist associations spent a week in Florida, along with a group of 20 from the Lebanon Baptist Association.
“It is long after disasters are no longer headlines or on the television news channels that disaster relief ministry is most needed,” said George. “It is when everyone else has begun to forget that God's people can come in and remind people of his constant love.”
Special to the Herald