Georgia Baptist disaster relief joins Dennis cleanup effort

ATLANTA - Days after the exit of Hurricane Dennis from the Florida panhandle, volunteers with Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief were on site to help in cleanup efforts.

Teams assembled first at Immanuel Baptist Church in Pace, Fla. July 13 before working in conjunction with the American Red Cross to prepare meals in addition to assess and clean up damage.

Units responding were 11-F (Feeding) out of Stone Mountain Association and 14-C (Communications) out of Chattahoochee Association. Cleanup and Recovery Units 10-R from West Metro Association and 12-R out of Mulberry Association also assisted.

Regional, local relief

Following work in Florida, the West Metro and Mulberry teams traveled to Antioch Baptist Church in Sylvester to assist in cleanup following local flooding. Cleanup and recovery units joining them were: 10-R (West Metro Association), 13-R (Noonday Assocation), 20-R (Gwinnett Metro Association), 12-R (Mulberry Association) and 3-R (Little River Asso-cation). A shower trailer from Rehobeth Association was used as well.

"The damage wasn't as bad in Florida as anticipated," said Jim Richardson, state director for Georgia Disaster Relief. "Most of the work was to clean up trees that had fallen.

"The flooding in Sylvester was a different kind of problem. We had to go in and 'mud-out' the houses. This was the process of basically cleaning up the houses that had been flooded. We cleared out mud from them and from underneath the sheetrock inside."

At one point declared a Category 4 hurricane, Dennis slammed into the Florida coast July 10 with wind speeds of 120 mph, uprooting trees and causing structural damage.

Most damage in Georgia came from heavy rains and flooding associated with Dennis. Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton received moderate damage when a tornado tore through the complex.

Richardson said assessment is being made to assist in flooding suffered in the metro Atlanta area.