Georgia relief teams outrun Frances, moved to Perry

Ken Touchton

Grady Matthews, right, a member of First Baptist Church, Tifton, checks supplies at the Georgia Baptist Convention disaster relief feeding unit stationed at First Baptist Church of Wauchula, Fla., after Hurricane Charley struck the Florida peninsula. Georgia teams were pulled out of the area on Sept. 2, along with those from other state conventions, and were relocated to Perry as Hurricane Frances began to move across the state.

PERRY - Georgia Baptist disaster relief teams joined units from other states in an evacuation from Florida on Sept. 1 as Hurricane Frances bore down on the state.

Most volunteers were relocated to a temporary post at First Baptist Church here while equipment such as mobile kitchens and shower units were stored at the neighboring agricultural center fairgrounds. Some units returned to their home states.

In the days leading up to the evacuation, Georgia Baptists had served 112,000 meals, cleaned up more than 400 worksites, and completed 1,500 volunteer days. Volunteers had been providing a variety of ministries in the wake of Hurricane Charley’s path of destruction.

Jim Richardson, GBC disaster relief director, said that teams were expected to return to the storm-ravaged Florida locations near the end of the Labor Day weekend.

More than 3,600 Southern Baptist volunteers from 24 states have helped prepare nearly 1 million meals and completed more than 3,400 cleanup and recovery projects since Hurricane Charley pummeled southwest Florida on Aug. 13.

As of Aug. 31, nearly 100 units or teams had provided onsite relief and assistance by manning mobile kitchens and chainsaw crews, providing shower units, laundry services and childcare.

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief coordinators estimate as many as 4,000 recovery jobs remain in the wake of Hurricane Charley. And officials with the Florida Baptist Convention have now tallied more than 40 Southern Baptist churches damaged by the storm, including four that were destroyed.