South Mobile sees Katrina’s worst in state

As Hurricane Katrina’s Category 5 winds weakened to Category 4 status and the eye made landfall Aug. 29, a group of Mobile Baptists huddled together at Woodridge Baptist Church, Mobile.
   
Pastor Mack Morris and about 40 church members had taken shelter in the church’s educational building as Katrina howled inland.
   
The estimated 140 mile-per-hour winds tore at the church’s shelter, creating a sound Morris will not soon forget. “When those sheets of metal started ripping off the roof, that was a frightful sound,” he said.
   
Morris and others raced to the building’s second floor and saw that the top of the roof had been peeled back on one side, exposing the second floor to Katrina’s fury.
   
Returning to the others on the first floor, neither Morris nor the others immediately reported the full extent of what they had seen. Instead the group rode out the remainder of the storm, moving from one spot to the other to stay dry as rain poured into the second floor and began leaking into the first.
   
They managed to stay dry and safe, emerging unharmed once the storm ended. With no one hurt, Morris said, “you find yourself very fortunate. It makes you feel very blessed to realize how fortunate you are.”
   
The church’s fortune has held out with the offer of help from Olive Baptist Church, Pensacola, Fla.
   
Morris said Olive Baptist has sent several groups to help Woodridge Baptist and others in the areas hit by Katrina. A crew was set to arrive Sept. 1 to help repair the roof, beginning with rebuilding a side wall and the roof frame and supports. “It’s going to take a lot to get it fixed,” he said.
   
Mobile Baptist Association Director of Missions (DOM) Thomas Wright said Woodridge Baptist was one of the most damaged in the area, as was First Baptist Church, Bayou LaBatre. 
   
Wright said the church sustained major water damage, as flood waters rose to three feet within the church, Wright said.
   
For many of the other churches, broken windows, lost roof shingles and downed trees seemed to be the norm in the days after Katrina. Noting that Kushla-Bethany Baptist Church, Eight Mile, sustained heavy damage from downed trees, Wright said, “At this point, it looks like 99 percent of (Mobile Association’s) churches received damage.”
   
Although by outward evaluations many churches seemed undamaged initially, Wright said rainfall two days after Katrina brought roof problems and leaks to light for many, such as Dauphin Way Baptist Church, Mobile.
   
The International Ministries Center in Mobile, which houses the International Seaman’s Center, lost a 3-by-30-foot strip of metal siding down one side of a building and sustained water damage. The front porch and sign outside the center’s main building also had damage.
   
Wright said the associational office weathered the storm fine, with downed trees the only loss.
   
Although Moffett Road Baptist Church, Mobile, had some leaks, they had power and became the command center for disaster relief efforts in the area, Wright said.
   
And as churches regained power, he was coordinating the set up of comfort stations for the storm’s survivors.
   
Woodridge’s Morris said the damage caused by Katrina was great. “If you compare this to Ivan, Dennis, others, this is a lot more for us (to deal with),” he said. “You have to go back to (Hurricane) Frederick to find anything to compare.”
   
But Morris added a qualifier.
   
“I think when we compare what happened with what happened in Mississippi and New Orleans, we were so fortunate,” he said. “(This seems) very minimal.”
   
That sentiment held true for much of north Mobile and the rest of the state.
   
University of Mobile (UM) had trees down and some broken windows, as well as power outages and some leaks, reported Kathy Dean, UM director of public relations. At press time, the school had plans to reopen the residence halls Sept. 5 and resume classes the next day.
   
Another Southern Baptist entity, the Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries, has a home in Mobile. The house had no damage, and the residents were able to help others in the area.
   
That sentiment was re-echoed by DOMs across the state as they reported on the effects of Katrina in their associations.
   
Larry Patterson, Baldwin Baptist Association DOM, said Baldwin churches came through with “some damage, but not too severe.”
   
Describing limbs blown down and shingles blown off roofs, Patterson said the association was spared the damage that it had sustained during hurricanes Ivan and Dennis. 
   
Romar Beach Baptist Church, Orange Beach, which was meeting in a beachside mobile chapel as a result of Hurricane Ivan, came through Katrina with no damage, according to reports from local firemen, Patterson said.
   
He noted that the association’s disaster relief teams have been busy with projects left over from Dennis and Ivan, and needs from Katrina such as downed trees and roof damage will be added to the list. 
   
The association’s chainsaw team plans to leave for Mobile Sept. 13.
Associations along the western side of the state all reported damage such as power outages, trees down and minor roof damage.
   
In Choctaw Baptist Association, Gilbertown Baptist Church has damage to the steeple, causing it to lean over so far it “looks like it’s parallel to the ground,” reported Tommy Campbell, pastor of Black Creek Baptist Church, Silas. He said Black Creek Baptist’s steeple was completely knocked off and lying in the churchyard.
   
DOM Franklin McClelland said although he had not heard of any damage to the other churches in the association, “(Katrina) is worse than Ivan because of the number of trees down and the power outages. We’re just doing the best we can down this way,” he said at press time, noting others in the association are helping those without power.
   
For many associations that faced the fringes of Hurricane Katrina and later, Tropical Storm Katrina, such as Covington and Escambia associations in the south and Lamar and Colbert-Lauderdale associations in the north, the aftermath of Katrina saw Alabama Baptists focused on cleaning up and meeting the needs in their areas.
   
In other associations, shelters were provided for evacuees from Mississippi and Louisiana.