Urgent response
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PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — Church members primarily in two stakes were among those who suffered the devastating force of Hurricane Charley, an erratic Category 4 hurricane with winds of 145 miles per hour which inflicted 22 deaths and left $7.4 billion in damages.
Leaving mobile homes and trees strewn across its wake, the storm spawned tornadoes and thundershowers and knocked out power to half a million.
The emergency that struck Friday, Aug. 13, also sparked a response by Church members who helped each other and others in their communities following the destruction.
The Church was able to account for all of its full-time missionaries, and damage to Church property was not severe. There were no reports of deaths or serious injuries among Church members. The homes of many members were damaged, and some were displaced from their homes.
Fort Myers Florida Stake President Stephen E. Thomson returned to Florida from Utah, where he had been visiting, after the hurricane blasted the coastline in his stake's boundaries. Speaking on a cell phone from the Port Charlotte Ward where he was part of a work crew clearing debris, he said, "This one was really bad because it intensified quickly and turned right."
Emergency officials confirmed that assessment. Charley was forecast to make landfall in the Tampa Bay area further north as a Category 2 storm. But Friday afternoon, it suddenly intensified and veered sharply east, crossing inland at Punta Gorda. It continued diagonally across the state, losing strength but still doing damage across Orlando to Daytona Beach.
The brunt of the storm swept quickly through Florida, and members mobilized to account for each other, assess damage and provide service where needed. In doing so, they faced many difficulties, according to Port Charlotte Ward Relief Society President Holly Anderson. She said severe thunderstorms moved through the area, necessitating quick, temporary repairs to the damaged roofs of houses even as the rain fell. At the same time, workers were laboring in temperatures in the 90s. With no electricity, there was no air conditioning to provide relief.
"On the community side, there's just terrible destruction," said Craig Knight of Church Welfare Services who traveled to Florida from headquarters in Salt Lake City. He said, "Members have pulled together well to help each other."
Brother Knight said the Church quickly got involved providing volunteer service to the community. In one project, he said teams of Church members did temporary repairs on damaged homes of workers at a hospital so that they could "have peace of mind" and continue with much needed medical care.
Initially, help was primarily in patching roofs and removing fallen trees and debris from property.
A quick response to the needs of the members was helpful, President Thompson said.
By Saturday afternoon, valuable help was delivered through the efforts of Brandon Florida Stake President Marvin J. Slovacek Jr. The stake, located near Tampa, provided men and heavy equipment to clear the parking lot and driveways of the Port Charlotte Ward meetinghouse. That enabled leaders to use the facility as a command center for further relief help, as well as a temporary storehouse to provide essential supplies to those in need. Trucks from the Church's area headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., and from the bishop's storehouse in Plant City, within the Brandon Florida Stake, delivered supplies that were unloaded by volunteers.
Sister Anderson and her husband, Bruce, helped with early coordination of relief efforts. Because telephones were out, home teachers and visiting teachers could not call and check on their families. Sister Anderson took a paper copy of the ward list and divided the families into areas according to their zip codes. Every member of the ward was included, also those who were less active and some who had no contact with the Church for some time. Then crews were sent to the different areas to assess needs. They returned with their report, work orders were written up and crews were assigned to do repairs and cleanup.
"They went from roof to roof without a complaint," Sister Anderson said of the work crews.
Often, when the crews finished patching the roof and windows of members' homes, neighbors would ask for help and weren't turned down. Teams of sisters from the ward also went around to members to provide food and offer shelter to those in need.
Stake Relief Society President Marjorie Lewis reported, "The stake Relief Society had planned a humanitarian project to be done at their woman's conference at the stake center on Saturday, Aug. 14. So when the hurricane hit on Friday, they had lots of hygiene items ready to be put into kits. These items that we had collected were loaded up immediately and taken to the Port Charlotte Ward in our stake to be dispensed to those in the area."
After the initial wave of help, Sister Anderson said it was necessary to regroup and reassess on a service project that will continue for weeks to come.
President Thompson said that a lot of help came from less affected units, particularly the Venice Branch on the extreme north and the Naples Ward on the extreme south, as well as from other stakes.
The Lakeland Florida Stake also mobilized efficiently to aid its members who were hit hard by the storm, according to a report from Kim Meyling. She reported that about 40 men formed two work groups after gathering chain saws, hammers and nails, plywood and tarps, and roofing materials, to help members of the Arcadia and Wauchula branches which were hard-hit. The crews were joined by members of the branches and all went out to repair roofs and clear debris.
Stake President Karl R. Sweeney was out of the state when the hurricane hit. After hearing a report, he said, "The organization functioned exceptionally well, notwithstanding the fact that communications were difficult. When (members) heard of a need, they were more than willing to volunteer their time and their resources to get it done."
Sister Meyling said that chain saws were completely worn out cutting trees off of houses. Her husband, Fred, pointed out that the last home repaired in the Arcadia Branch was that of Terry A. Moe, the branch president. "He was much more worried about his members than about his own home," Brother Meyling said.
Fahy S. Robinson, second counselor in the stake presidency, led a group to the Wauchula Branch. There they were joined by a dozen branch members. Among those helped was the family of Jose Suarez, recently sealed in the Orlando Florida Temple. The roof of the Suarez home had been peeled off, leaving the family to seek shelter in the branch meetinghouse.
E-mail to: ghill@desnews.com
