Nedra Cave stayed in her rural Arcadia home to protect her animals when Hurricane Charley hit Southwest Florida and turned inland.
Had the 82-year-old widow gone to the designated shelter in Arcadia’s Turner Agra-Civic Center, it may have been worse. The 140- miles-per-hour winds peeled the roof and a wall from the building, sending those seeking refuge running across the street to the local high school.
The storm “turned terrible,” recalled Cave, a member of Brownville Baptist Church. “The sound was so loud I couldn’t hear the trees fall across my house.” Nor did she see her neighbor’s tractor blow away.
When the storm was over, she surveyed her wooden clapboard home covered with trees, but found no damage and no leaks. “I am blessed,” she said.
Six days after the storm, volunteers from Alabama’s Tennessee River Baptist Association arrived at her home equipped with chainsaws and power equipment to cut down fallen trees and clear debris from her yard.
“Now my friends from the Southern Baptist Convention showed up to help me,” said Cave. “What a wonderful surprise. I just thank God for His deliverance.”
The team of recovery volunteers, led by Danny Gipson, pastor of
Woodville Baptist Church in Woodville, had driven for more than 16 hours from north Alabama to arrive at First Baptist Church of Arcadia, where Alabama Baptist disaster relief teams were stationed.
They first were assigned to several trailer parks that dot the orange-grove lined back roads leading to Arcadia, dodging hanging electrical wires and fallen trees snapped in two. They primarily assisted elderly persons who could not help themselves. Using chainsaws they cut 40 foot pines into firewood-sized chunks and placed tarps over damaged roofs. “All you have to do with this kind of work is be willing to work,” said Gipson, “and to tell them about the Lord.”
Preparing to lower one of the volunteers from a roof, the volunteers realized they needed a harness for the man. About that time, the elderly home owner brought a harness from his barn and offered it to the volunteers. He gave the piece of equipment to the team to keep. “The Lord always said he would supply your needs,” Gipson noted.
Throughout the week, the team traveled around the county in a pickup truck and hauling a trailer emblazoned with the association’s name and disaster relief logo. Arcadia residents stopped the men on the streets to express their thanks. “The people are hurting so much. They have lost everything. My heart is broken,” Gipson said.
As they were working on Cave’s home, Rafael de Armas, director of missions for the Peace River Baptist Association, where Arcadia is located, approached the volunteers, asking to pray for them.
As he began praying, de Armas, who rode out the storm in his own damaged home, began to sob. Gipson finished the prayer, comforting his fellow minister.
“We plan to come back in three weeks,” Gipson said. “This has been a spiritual awakening, a spiritual retreat. We want to come back and see His (Christ’s) peace come over the area.”
Share with others: