September 28, 2024
PERRY, Fla. — As Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm, made landfall just after 11 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 26, in Taylor County, Florida Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers are now on “active status,” preparing to respond quickly to deliver help, hope and healing to those impacted by the storm.
Less than 12 hours after Hurricane Helene’s landfall, David Coggins, FBDR director, said that volunteers are in the process of transporting and setting up equipment and resources at First Baptist Church in Perry, which will serve as the disaster relief command center. As soon as the command center is operational, Coggins said that volunteers can begin providing meals, damage assessment, clean-up and recovery, and spiritual care and witness as they help community address immediate needs.
“I am so thankful for Florida Baptist Disaster Relief, our wonderful volunteers and Florida Baptist churches. In the wake of Hurricane Helene, we are already working to minister to the needs of affected communities, showing Jesus’ love to hurting people in this time of crisis,” said Stephen Rummage, Florida Baptists’ executive director-treasurer, in a social media post.
Hurricane Helene’s landfall marks the third time in just over a year for the Big Bend region to be hit with a hurricane. Category 1 Hurricane Debby made landfall there on Aug. 5 of this year. Category 3 Hurricane Idalia struck the area on Aug. 30, 2023, as the strongest hurricane at the time ever to hit the region. Hurricane Helene’s wind and storm surge have exceeded Hurricane Idalia, thus, giving Hurricane Helene the distinction of being the strongest hurricane ever to strike Florida’s Big Bend.
Hurricane Helene has left havoc in its path, with structural damage and destruction, record-setting storm surges in several areas, fierce winds, soaking rainfall and as many as one million Floridians without power. The storm’s path of destruction in Florida extends from the Big Bend southward all the way down the coastline to Tampa Bay and Clearwater Beach and possibly beyond. Tallahassee, just north of the Big Bend, may have been spared the brunt of the storm’s fury.
The hurricane pushed through Florida quickly as it moved northward into Georgia, South Carolina and other states with pummeling rain and wind.
With each of the three hurricane strikes in the Big Bend over the past 13 months. First Baptist Church in Perry has stepped up as the disaster relief command center.
Although Coggins admitted he was unsure of asking Steven Ruff, pastor of First Baptist Church in Perry, if FBDR could set up its command center at his church once again, the pastor told Coggins that the disaster relief volunteers, along with all their equipment and resources, were “welcome back.”
Such a cooperative spirit “speaks to that church’s commitment to reach its community, even if it takes going through a third hurricane,” said Coggins.
Just as First Baptist Church in Perry is willing to do its part in relief efforts, FBDR volunteers, also just a month from their latest deployment in the Big Bend, are stepping up to serve, Coggins said.
“We stand ready to share the hope of Christ,” he said.
Coggins stated that FBDR is working to coordinate its response with partners from The Salvation Army, the Florida Department of Emergency Management, Southern Baptists’ Send Relief, American Red Cross and first responders.
During the Hurricane Debby response in August of this year, FBDR and The Salvation Army launched a joint service initiative to ensure that every Salvation Army mobile feeding unit would be accompanied by trained chaplains to offer the hope of the gospel to those impacted by disaster.
When the initiative was launched, Coggins said, “Jesus gave us a mandate to meet the physical needs of people, but more so He gave us a mandate to meet the spiritual needs.”
That partnership approach from the two faith-based relief organizations to meet both physical and spiritual needs will be a focus of Hurricane Helene response.
___
This story was first published by the Florida Baptist Convention.
