04417
September 22, 2004

Ivan spares most Presbyterian church property

But hurricane slams homes, kills one man

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE — Hurricane Ivan, despite wreaking havoc on the Florida and Alabama coasts last week, inflicted only minor damage to most Presbyterian churches in its path, according to initial reports, but took a heavier toll on the home of church-goers.

      One Presbyterian man died in North Carolina after wind gusts sent a tree crashing into his home as the remnants of Ivan roiled rivers and ripped the sides from mountains in the state’s western tip.

      Jay Walker, a 55-year-old member of Trinity Church in Hendersonville, NC, died instantly when a tree crashed into his home in Flat Rock, NC, as he slept. He was killed instantly. His wife is uninjured.

      A number of presbyteries are reporting that members are reporting heavy damage to residences.

      The western portion of the Presbytery of Florida, which covers the state’s panhandle, received the brunt of Ivan’s 130 mph winds when it blasted U.S. shores Sept. 16. The powerful storm made landfall near the Alabama resort towns of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach before ripping into Pensacola, FL.

      Miraculously, Presbyterian churches along Ivan’s trail of destruction sustained only minor damage amid the Category 4 storm.

      "We have water damage," said Joanne Hines, the Presbytery of Florida’s interim executive presbyter. ‘Not a tremendous amount, but every church seems to have a little bit. There is a little bit of damage from some of the tree branches falling through sheds and so forth.’

      There were a handful of churches in hard-hit Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach that Hines had been unable to reach earlier this week, but said she heard through others that the congregations were in good shape.

      "God is our refuge and strength," Hines said following Florida’s third deadly storm in weeks. ‘We build on rock."

      Only Trinity Presbyterian Church in Pensacola reported significant damage after high winds battered the roof of its activities center, stripping a section down to the wood with almost no shingles or tar paper remaining, according to Jim Green, an elder who chairs the congregation’s Facilities Committee.

      He said blowing rain poured through cracks in the damaged roof onto a gymnasium floor, covering it with two inches of water. He said classroom floors were soaking wet and a stairwell was blocked by tiles and installation from a collapsed ceiling.

      "I don’t think anything has to be demolished," said Green, as work crews were busy mopping up the soggy gymnasium floor. "I think we’ll have to put a new roof on and we’ll have to rework all the insides of those classrooms."

      The sanctuary at Trinity Church, which is separate from the activities center, was undamaged with two regular Sunday services proceeding as scheduled Sept. 19, though without electricity or air conditioning.

      Green said local officials reported that thousands were without power in the area following the storm and said he believed that all members of Trinity Church were without electricity as of Monday. He said phone service was at a premium.

       "Very few people have power," Green said. "Anybody that has anything has generators. There are people from all over the country that are doing a fantastic job of clearing, but it’s a big job ahead."

      Hines said presbytery officials believe a small tornado was responsible for damaging a shed and numerous trees at Dogwood Acres, a Presbytery of Florida camp and conference center located outside Vernon, FL.

      Hines said the homes of Presbyterian members could have sustained more damage than churches in the Presbytery of Florida, which includes 48 congregations from Pensacola to Tallahassee.

      "We know there is a lot of damage to personal homes, but we don’t quite know the extent of that yet," Hines said.

      Green said an undetermined number of members at Trinity Church had homes severely damaged by the storm.

      "We have a lot of members that we’re trying to take care of," he said. "We have a lot of trees on houses. We have some members that don’t have roofs, some that don’t have houses."

      South Alabama and Mississippi presbyteries reported few problems in their regions, other than power outages and downed trees.

      "We were fortunate, nothing major," said the Rev. Samford Turner, executive presbyter/stated clerk at the Presbytery of South Alabama.

      Ivan’s tore across the south and northeast leaving 49 people dead, 19 of them in Florida. Earlier, it was blamed for 70 deaths in the Caribbean.

      More than a million people were initially without power across 13 states, leaving many in Florida’s Panhandle and Alabama’s Gulf Coast to sweat it out without air conditioning. At a Pensacola shopping center, people waited in cars or on foot for hours Saturday to receive necessities from Florida National Guard troops, according to published reports.

      "It looks worse than it does on the news," Green said of the devastation in Pensacola. ‘It’s hard to describe when you see 30 or 40 pine trees down in one person’s yard and they’re on the house and you can’t even tell the house is back there.’ 

      In a Sept. 17 situation report, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) said that $160,000 from the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering and designated disaster funds has been sent to presbyteries affected by the hurricanes for relief work and for church repair. A combined $7,000 has been sent to Church World Service and the Disaster News Network.

       Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Team (PDAT) members the Revs. Bill Neely and Alonza Washington were traveling to the central Gulf Coast this week to help assess damage and to assist impacted presbyteries organize response efforts, the situation report said.

      The remnants of hurricanes Frances and Ivan caused major flooding in western North Carolina when it tore through the region Sept. 17, bringing with it winds of up to 60 mph and from 3 to 12 inches of rain.

       Most members of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Hendersonville, NC,  —  which lost one member — were without power and phone service at the time, though the church building sustained no damage. 

       At least three Presbyterian Churches in the Presbytery of Western North Carolina sustained flooding, according to Ginnie Stevens, the presbytery’s Associate for Mission.

      "It was a shock and a sorrow as well," said the Rev. John Odom, associate pastor at Trinity Church, speaking of Walker’s death. "The whole community has rallied behind the family."

       The storm killed at least seven others in North Carolina — two of them children. The storm left a trail of disaster in 16 counties. Downed trees, power lines, and flooding have made the roads in Henderson County, located in the Presbytery of Western North Carolina, all but impassable.

       "If Florida hadn’t been hit we would be the major news," said Stevens. "We have a lot of damage in pockets. There’s going to be a long-term recovery."

       Flooding also impacted presbyteries in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

      Financial contributions for hurricane relief can be made by mailing checks to: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Individual Remittance Processing, P.O. Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700. Gifts by credit card may be made by calling PresbyTel at 800-872-3283 or online at: http://www.pcusa.org/pda. Refer to relief #9-2000015 for U.S. disaster response; #9-2000163 for U.S. church property damage; and#9-2000166for Caribbean disaster response.