Stories tagged with: gulf coast

• Wilma destroys church's sanctuary, but not its hope

  by Joni B. Hannigan, Florida Baptist Witness, posted Friday, October 28, 2005 (18 years ago)

  BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (BP)--A bag of used clothes left by the church’s front door after Hurricane Wilma roared through Florida reminded Pastor Dennis Demarois of the community’s love for the church.

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• 15 Baptist kitchen units begin post-Wilma operations in Fla.

  by Mickey Noah, posted Thursday, October 27, 2005 (18 years ago)

  ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--An estimated 500 Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers are now in the middle of Hurricane Wilma’s devastation in South Florida, while 7,000 SBC volunteers are still serving along the Gulf Coast.

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• Hurricane Wilma leaves 6 million without power, 5 dead

  by Staff, posted Tuesday, October 25, 2005 (18 years ago)

  Wary of Wilma Girard Desnoyers and his wife Rita evacuate their mobile home in Sunny South Estates as the eye of Hurricane Wilma passed over Palm Beach County Monday, past the remains of their neighbor's roof wrapped around a stand of palm trees. The couple had become worried about their own roof and headed to a shelter. Photo by Lannis Waters/Palm Beach Post /I>

  NAPLES, Fla. (BP)--Hurricane Wilma inflicted widespread damage in South Florida, leaving residents there with the tasks of clearing debris, ridding homes and businesses of water, repairing power lines and rebuilding damaged structures while Southern Baptists took their places of service alongside them.

  The storm, which is being called the worst to hit Broward County since Hurricane King in 1950, is responsible for at least five deaths, 6 million people without electricity and damage estimated between $6 and $10 billion in South Florida, according to the Associated Press.

  Residents sought generators, chain saws and other supplies and officials were distributing ice, water and food in the state’s three most populous areas -- Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties -- AP said. Read More

• Hurricane Wilma response begins: Baptist disaster relief units readied from 15 states

  by Mickey Noah, posted Monday, October 24, 2005 (18 years ago)

  ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--As Hurricane Wilma churns into the Atlantic Ocean, Southern Baptists’ disaster relief network is once again mobilizing volunteers and relief units to the hardest-hit areas of Florida.

  Ten disaster relief kitchens from Florida, Alabama, Illinois, Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee and Texas were staged at Lake Yale, a Florida Baptist Convention state camp 30 miles northwest of Orlando along with a feeding crew from the California Baptist Convention to work in the American Red Cross’ “Spirit of America” kitchen.

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• Wilma’s path across Caribbean sends missionaries into action

  by Julie McGowan, posted Monday, October 24, 2005 (18 years ago)

  On the phone International Mission Board missionary Doug Millar reports from Mexico after Hurricane Wilma roars through the region: Click here to hear the full report.

  MÉRIDA, Mexico (BP)--Four days after Hurricane Wilma crawled across Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, Mexican nationals and tourists still wear wet clothes as they search for food and clean water. They are desperate for the necessities of life –- such as one little girl’s need for asthma medicine.

  Two-year-old Sophie, the daughter of a Mexican Baptist youth minister, lives with asthma. She needs special medicine -– medicine that International Mission Board missionary Doug Millar has in hand. However, a five-foot wall of water at least a mile wide separates Millar from little Sophie in Cancún. He asks Southern Baptists to pray that God will part the flood waters so Sophie can access the most basic of human needs: air. Read More

• Southern Baptist Disaster Relief gears up for next task as Hurricane Wilma approaches

  by Mickey Noah, posted Friday, October 21, 2005 (18 years ago)

  ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--First, there was Katrina. Then Rita. Now, North America’s third-largest disaster relief network is gearing up for yet another major hurricane, Wilma, expected to hit the western tip of South Florida no later than Tuesday, Oct. 25.

  “Hurricane Wilma is unpredictable at this point,” said Mickey Caison, manager of the North American Mission Board’s disaster operations center, which has been operating around the clock since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in late August. “Weather models show Wilma could hit as early as Monday or maybe not until Tuesday morning.” Read More

• His new faith among fruits of disaster relief, Cooperative Program

  by Norm Miller, posted Thursday, October 13, 2005 (18 years ago)

  KIRBYVILLE, Texas (BP)--Clyde and Rose Lummus huddled in their small house as Hurricane Rita stormed up the tree-whiskered hill country of east Texas. The only noises louder than the howling gale were the monstrous oak crashing through their roof and the stately pine crushing a pickup truck in their front yard. Read More

• Texas leaders discover widespread damage from Rita

  by Jerry Pierce, Southern Baptist Texan, posted Monday, October 03, 2005 (18 years ago)

  Rita's destruction When Hurricane Rita hit along the Gulf Coast Sept. 24, it left a trail of destruction, including a badly damaged steeple at First Baptist Church in Silsbee, Texas.Photo courtesy of the Southern Baptist Texan.

  JASPER, Texas (BP)--Fifty miles north of Beaumont, Texas, members of First Baptist Church of Kirbyville were busy passing out water and ice to fellow townspeople who were all in the same predicament: No electricity and no water.

        “We’re living ‘old school,’” said Robert Fuller, a member of FBC. The church building did not suffer serious damage, he said, but winds knocked out power and damaged homes around the town.

        “I’ve got a big pine that should have hit our house,” he added.

        Fuller said he was using his generator, although he said he was expecting to be without power for possibly a month.

        The towns of Jasper, Kirbyville, and Silsbee, in deep Southeast Texas, were hard hit by Hurricane Rita’s winds Sept. 24. Early attempts to reach churches in the area were mostly unsuccessful since phone lines were down and some roads were blocked. Read More

• SBTC, Salvation Army join forces in hurricane relief

  by Norm Miller, posted Monday, October 03, 2005 (18 years ago)

  PORT ARTHUR, Texas (BP)--With a cell phone in one hand and a satellite phone in the other, Bill Davenport left his Dallas area office Sept. 26 for Port Arthur, Texas, while trying to contact officials at the Salvation Army. Read More

• Baptist disaster relief units expand to 2 fronts after Rita's landfall

  by Staff, posted Monday, September 26, 2005 (18 years ago)

  ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--Southern Baptists are assessing needs and assigning mobile disaster relief units to areas of Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana damaged during Hurricane Rita, while continuing to provide hot meals, clean-up and recovery services throughout the Gulf Coast.

        “We’ve had people on the ground in the affected areas of Louisiana and Texas since the storm went through Saturday,” said Jim Burton, who coordinates disaster relief services for the North American Mission Board. “They are quickly assessing needs so we can assign mobile units today and tomorrow.

  Rita’s onslaught Hurricane Rita’s 110 mph winds, in battering Lake Charles, La., put a temporary halt to local gambling venues such as the Isle of Capri Casino. Photo by Lance Iversen/San Francisco Chronicle

        “Many of the mobile kitchens and cleanup and recovery crews that were staged at the end of last week just outside the anticipated path of the storm should be feeding hot meals, cutting up downed trees and providing communication and other services tomorrow,” Burton said Sept. 26. “We will ramp up the services throughout the week as needs become clearer and our mobile units assemble from across the country.”

  While some communities along the Texas-Louisiana border were nearly wiped out, overall Hurricane Rita did not wreak the degree of havoc authorities had feared along the already-devastated Gulf Coast region Sept. 24. Read More