Florida churches offer respite and relief after Hurricane Milton
When Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc last month across six states, the Midway Road Church of Christ in Fort Pierce, Fla., sent $5,600 to Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort to help out.
Less than three weeks later, the church got a call from the Tennessee group asking if the congregation needed help after Hurricane Milton.
Milton, at one time a Category 5 hurricane, made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast, south of Tampa.
The 70-member Midway church, which meets on the opposite side of the Florida peninsula, experienced “a lot less rain than we anticipated, but a lot of wind” as Milton passed by on its way into the Atlantic, said church secretary Peggy Engeler.
Midway members remember what it meant for the organization to show up two decades ago after back-to-back Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne besieged the area.
“That was pretty devastating for our community in 2004, and they brought two tractor-trailers and set up in our parking lot and passed out food, diapers, MREs (Meals Ready to Eat),” elder Robert (R.A.) Hawley said. “We always remembered that organization in Tennessee.”
Ken Lowry, associate director of the Nashville-based nonprofit, said the Fort Pierce congregation hasn’t requested a truck after the latest hurricane, but the organization is ready to respond if they need one.
As the wind and rain from Milton began to subside, Florida churches got to work.
Here’s how some congregations responded:
Midway Road Church of Christ, Fort Pierce
Fort Pierce’s damage was caused by seven tornadoes that destroyed more than 150 homes and caused four fatalities.
Before the storm hit, Hawley said, “We put shutters up for some of the widows, made sure their homes were secure, and if they needed fuel for generators, they had it.”
“We’re actually going to clean up one of the member’s neighbor’s homes. A lot of their property is in a neighbor’s yard.”
Several members’ homes were damaged by tornadoes. “We’re actually going to clean up one of the member’s neighbor’s homes,” Hawley explained. “A lot of their property is in a neighbor’s yard.”
Another member lives in the Spanish Lakes neighborhood, where six were killed and tornadoes destroyed several homes.
“It was in his community,” Hawley said. “He heard the destruction.”
Port Charlotte Church of Christ
Bryan Winn, minister for the Port Charlotte Church of Christ, midway between Sarasota and Fort Myers on Florida’s Gulf Coast, said the church was fortunate to have no damage to its building and only a brief power outage.
“For the most part, we were very blessed,” Winn said.
Several members still have no electricity, and a few had flooding, but the congregation has come together to help with clean up.
“It’s very sporadic where damage occurred and didn’t occur,” he said.
“The disaster areas are in places where normally there wouldn’t be any. And in some places where you’d expect it, there’s not any.”
Beverly Dobbs
“We’ve worked with Ken Lowry in the past,” he said of the Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort official. “But when I spoke to him last week, I explained to him essentially that the volunteers would be better suited in the Venice area or in Tampa or Sarasota.”
Beverly Dobbs, ministry assistant with One Kingdom, a relief ministry based in West Monroe, La., received a similar response from the Gulf Coast Church of Christ in Fort Myers, where she and her husband helped two years ago after Hurricane Ian.
“They said, ‘We don’t need you right now.’” After recovering from Ian, they knew other communities had greater needs, Dobbs said.
Creekside Church of Christ, Brandon
Keegan Wilson is connections minister for Creekside Church of Christ in Brandon, just 16 miles east of Tampa.
The native Australian said all the congregation’s members were in the hurricane’s path. Several had trees come through their houses or were flooded, but no one was injured.
“We’ve been focusing more on the community around us,” Wilson said.
Many congregations in the Tampa Bay area lost electricity for a longer time than Creekside, which proved fortunate because the worst of the disaster in the area happened two days after Milton when Lithia, a community less than a mile south of Creekside on the Alafia River, flooded.
Reports of the river’s crest range from 23 to 25 feet. Flood stage is 13 feet.
“No one expected this massive flood in Lithia, and we woke up and realized there was trouble,” Wilson said.
Many residents in the area kept farm animals. When Wilson got in a boat and began paddling through the community, “I saw a lot of animals floating — a lot of animals stranded. No one knew it would be that high.”
Because Creekside is so close, it became a staging area.
“We had the sheriff’s office, Coast Guard, National Guard. We had helicopters landing at church,” Wilson said in the Aussie accent that sets him apart from fellow Floridians.
“We had the sheriff’s office, Coast Guard, National Guard. We had helicopters landing at church. … We want to make this a Christ-centered facility where we can evangelize.”
Wilson’s role at the church is one of his two jobs — his other is buying and selling private jets, which he calls a side gig — a side gig that has helped him make connections with people who were in a position to help financially.
He said the congregation wants to be a hub for the community; that’s been part of its plan all along: “We want to make this a Christ-centered facility where we can evangelize.”
An image of Hurricane Milton approaching Florida.
One of Creekside’s buildings is H5 rated for hurricanes but had not yet been readied to serve in disaster relief.
“I got to speak to our sheriff, and we are going to set up to support their workers and linemen,” Wilson said.
“We went through $30,000 to $35,000 of supplies in two days. People from church just stepped up and helped. We had no idea what we were doing, but we figured it out,” he said.
“We went through $30,000 to $35,000 of supplies in two days. People from church just stepped up and helped. We had no idea what we were doing, but we figured it out.”
Sorrento Hills Church of Christ, Sorrento
The Sorrento Hills congregation, about 30 miles northwest of Orlando, has grown to about 70 members since it began in 2020 after meeting in homes for about four years. Children make up more than a third of that number.
The minister was on vacation when Milton arrived, so Byron Chapman, the treasurer, wound up helping to organize the relief response.
“We had minimal damage to the property,” Chapman said, “just a lot of branches and power lines down.”
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This video provided by Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort shows volunteers distributing supplies at the Sorrento Hills Church of Christ after Hurricane Milton.
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Power at the church was back up by Saturday night, but throughout the community, bigger trees took down power lines, and sinkholes appeared.
Chapman’s wife, Vanessa, is the church secretary.
“We’ve been steadily growing and are thankful that — out of the bad event that happened to our community — we were able to use it for good and to glorify God, thanks to the Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort,” she said.
Members of the Sorrento Hills Church of Christ sport Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort T-shirts as they distribute supplies to their community.
Some contacts Byron Chapman had made through Polishing the Pulpit had told him about the organization prior to the storm’s arrival.
“The storm hit Wednesday night, and they were able to get a truck here within 36 hours, which is phenomenal,” he said. “It got here at 4 a.m. Saturday morning, and we were able to get some people down the street to bring a forklift to us at 6 a.m.
“We ended up doing a disaster relief effort on Saturday. After six hours we had depleted all the materials,” Byron Chapman said. “We had about 275 cars that came through and more folks came walking.”
Members of the Sorrento Hills Church of Christ in Florida stand in front of a Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort supply trailer.
About 30 Sorrento Hills members showed up to help. Another 15 to 18 volunteers from two churches in Jacksonville, including the youth group from the Lake Forest Church of Christ in Jacksonville, arrived and cleaned up properties for neighborhood elderly and single moms.
“We are always looking for evangelistic outreach opportunities in our Sorrento community,” Vanessa said, “and this was a very big one.”
53rd Ave. Church of Christ, Bradenton
Despite similar names, the Churches of Christ Disaster Response Team from Tipp City, Ohio, and the Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort from Nashville function in different but essential ways.
The 53rd Avenue Church of Christ in Bradenton has received trailers from both.
Laura Cremeans, director of the Ohio ministry, said her organization is still set up at the Forrest Park Church of Christ in Valdosta, Georgia, helping with Helene relief. But they’ve sent a trailer to Bradenton and are still looking for other areas in Florida that need help. Her teams typically arrive with a mobile shower trailer, stocked tool trailers, health kits, clean-up kits, baby kits, school kits and trained coordinators.
The Nashville ministry sends supplies to be distributed by Churches of Christ in disaster areas.
Lowry said their 53-foot semis are loaded with 24 pallets — 75,000 to 80,000 pounds of supplies including prepacked food boxes that feed a family of four for five days.
“The last thing that goes in each box is a New Testament and handwritten note,” Lowry said.
Members of the 53rd Ave. Church of Christ unload boxes from a Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort truck.
They also send boxes with personal care items, infant care boxes, a cleanup kit in a 5-gallon bucket prepacked with batteries, flashlights, masks and cleaning supplies. And they send bulk items — pallets of bleach, bottled water, spray cleanser, wheelbarrows, rakes, shovels, mops, blooms, hose, tarps, box fans, bed linens and clothing — all brand new.
Randy Blankinship, an elder at 53rd Avenue, is grateful for all of it.
He’s been coordinating the relief effort “by default,” he said. But he’s quick to give credit to the church members who have pitched in. “We’ve got a lot of people involved – it has turned into a well-orchestrated process so far.”
“(Bradenton) took a sideswipe from Helene. Milton was a direct hit. The eye of the storm went right across our area, including the church building and my house and most of our members’ homes.”
Blankinship has been at the 150-member congregation for 18 years.
He explained that Bradenton “took a sideswipe from Helene. Milton was a direct hit. The eye of the storm went right across our area, including the church building and my house and most of our members’ homes.”
The church itself had only minor damage. Power was lost to the main building and a food pantry structure that has become relief headquarters. An old garage on the property collapsed, and much of the old growth live oaks and pine trees were shredded.
Blankinship said most effects from Milton were from high winds and fallen trees that caused structural damage.
“Power outages have been problematic because they’ve been ongoing — we still have members without power,” he said. He praised the utility companies and contracting companies for the work they’ve done — but the number affected is significant, “so we’re still watching out for them. Some have generators, and some don’t, so we try to get generators to them or a supply of fuel.”
Fuel shortage has been a persistent and complicating problem. Gas stations are out of fuel or don’t have power to pump it. A few trucks have made it to the area, but lines stretch up to a half mile. The Port of Manatee, just north of Bradenton, reopened Monday and has a fuel dock. He hopes that helps.
A distribution of goods from Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort was planned for Wednesday, and he hoped there would be another later in the week. Volunteers have been solicited from nearby congregations to help.
He complimented the relief groups for their attentiveness and efficiency.
Despite the destruction, congregations have found blessings in the muck.
One Kingdom’s Dobbs summed it up.
“They’ve all rallied. It’s what churches are supposed to do.”
CHERYL MANN BACON is a Christian Chronicle contributing editor who served for 20 years as chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Abilene Christian University. Contact [email protected].
The post Florida churches offer respite and relief after Hurricane Milton appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.
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