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More than a week after Hurricane Ike devastated parts of the Texas upper Gulf Coast and snapped trees 100 miles inland, people in the hundreds of thousands remained without electricity as Southern Baptists worked to remove limbs and debris, feed hungry people and offer the hope of the gospel.
A day after the storm, disaster relief (DR) response from Southern Baptists began as teams from multiple states, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, and Texas Baptist Men fed evacuees and cleared debris around homes.
That response will be long term for the SBTC as the focus turns from immediate needs to rebuilding homes and churches along the coast, said SBTC DR Director Jim Richardson.
Utility officials told the Houston Chronicle that some residents would inevitably see higher utility rates as large sections of the Texas power grid are rebuilt.
The SBTC’s partnership with Nehemiah’s Vision, a ministry begun by First Baptist Church, Vidor, after Rita, will expand to meet even more rebuilding needs in Southeast Texas, Richardson said.
Initially, SBTC volunteers were serving evacuees in Tyler, Livingston, Lufkin, Port Arthur and Huntsville through feeding, chaplaincy, and chainsaw work.
By Sept. 23, SBTC teams were serving in coastal areas as out-of-state DR teams returned home and evacuees began returning in some areas near the coast.
Richardson was en route to Galveston on Sept. 22 to set up a large SBTC feeding operation there.
The week after the storm, 18 counties, mostly rural counties east and north of Houston, reported 75-100 percent of residents without power, according to the website of the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Much of Houston went without power for most of the week following Ike as well.
By Sept. 22, much of Houston had regained power, with a handful of utility companies reporting a range between 14 and 34 percent of customers still without power, mostly in outlying areas.
Numerous churches were damaged, and several were devastated.
For example, the buildings at First Baptist Church of Gilchrist, a community on Galveston Island, were reportedly destroyed.
West End Baptist Church and University Baptist Church, both in Galveston, sustained some damage.
West End Pastor Noel Vargas evacuated before the storm, but received word that his street was flooded “so I think our home got flooded as well. My family is doing good.? Please keep us in your prayers,” he told the TEXAN.
Billy Graff, pastor of University Baptist Church in Galveston, told the TEXAN in an e-mail the week after Ike: “The best report I have to date is that the church has very minimal damage. The church is surrounded by tall buildings, which apparently provided protection. If we had power we could have services. The most challenging problem is that we are not allowed back on the island. This could be a great opportunity to connect with the community for Christ.”
David R. Brumbelow, pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Highlands, just east of Houston near the Houston Ship Channel, chose to stay home rather than evacuate, chronicling his experience in several pages of notes.
Brumbelow said his church and home sustained some damage, but his decision not to stock up on more food nor to retrieve his generator that was 75 miles from his home was a mistake; he spent Sunday night following the storm at the church because his home was still without power.
“You are now in a world of ”haves’ and ‘have nots.’ The ‘haves’ have a generator,” he wrote. “The only news from the outside world was a battery-powered radio.”
David Fannin, pastor of Nassau Bay Baptist Church, was in Kenya during Ike and said church members reported his church and home sustained no major damage. He was helping with a men’s conference in Kenya and decided to keep his travel plans despite his living near the coast south of Houston.
“I wasn’t going to let this stop us from doing God’s work,” he said.
Marcos Ramos, pastor of First Baptist Church, Galena Park, about 20 miles north of the coast between Houston and Galveston, said the church hosted 28 people as Ike hit.
“We didn’t have services [the Sunday after Ike],” Ramos said. “Most of our people evacuated. We were at the parsonage, and we’re OK except no electricity.”
The J. Dalton Havard School of Theological Studies, an extension of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Houston, sustained no major damage. But Houston Baptist University suffered an estimated $8 million to $10 million in damages, HBU President Robert Sloan reported on the university’s website Sept. 15.
Insurance industry experts estimated physical losses as high as $25 billion, according to Deloitte & Touche L.L.P., a New York-based consulting firm, which would make it the third-costliest storm in United States history.
Perhaps the oddest scene in the storm’s aftermath was captured by an Associated Press photographer: An 11-year-old pet lioness and her owner failed to evacuate Crystal Beach before the hurricane and ended up taking shelter in the First Baptist Church of Crystal Beach. The AP photo, taken from an elevated position, showed the beast lying near the pulpit of the church auditorium.
