Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

Convoys of utility trucks are a familiar site traveling west on Interstate 10 into the Pensacola area to help restore power in the aftermath of Hurricane Dennis. Over a hundred trucks from an underground cable company in Arkansas snaked down the right hand side of the road July 12 just before an exit in Santa Rosa County. According to reports from Florida’s Emergency Operations Center in Tallhassee, about 40-50% percent of the power in the counties around Pensacola had been restored by July 13.

Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

Southern Baptist Convention president Bobby Welch began a two-day, two-state tour of areas affected by Hurricane Dennis July 13-14 with a visit to the Pensacola Bay Baptist Association office which houses a medical clinic. In the pharmacy, Welch encourages Director of Missions Bob Greene. “This would be full of brooms and toilet paper if you all didn’t have initiative,” Welch told Greene, looking around at the small closet lined with various drugs dispensed to patients by the clinic’s doctor.

Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

Bill Wade, a member of First Baptist Church in Chiefland, Fla., helps in cleanup and recovery efforts from Hurricane Dennis. Wade worked July 15 to clear debris from a mostly destroyed mobile home in Navarre, Fla., where a recently widowed woman and her German shepherd are living in one room until she can make other arrangements.

Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

Bobby Welch, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, traveled July 13-14 to areas in Alabama and Florida affected by Hurricane Dennis. Welch brought a message of thanks to disaster relief workers on behalf of Southern Baptists. At Immanuel Baptist Church in Pace, Fla., Welch was recognized by a volunteer who begin to chant “Everyone Can.” Soon others from the George Baptist Disaster Relief unit assigned to cook and feed on the site picked up the chant and asked him if he had any “frogs,” recalling an illustration from his address to the SBC last month in Nashville.

Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

Throughout his two-day, two-state tour to areas affected by Hurricane Dennis July 13-14, Bobby Welch, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, stopped to pray with pastors and relief workers whom he thanked for giving of their time to help in efforts. At First Baptist Church in Jay, Fla., Welch found a group from Sand Stone, Ala., where he was born.

Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

Southern Baptist Convention president Bobby Welch, on the right, looks at damage at Rays Chapel Baptist Church in Escambia County, Fla., July 13 with the church’s pastor, Fill Enfinger, after Hurricane Dennis hit the region earlier in the week. Bobby Musselwhite, center, director of missions for the neighboring Santa Rosa Baptist Association, took Welch on a tour throughout a two-state region July 13-14. The three-year old building in the background, with education space and a fellowship hall, were heavily damaged when strong winds peeled back part of the roof, scattering insulation and debris more than 500 feet across the road.

Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

Bobby Welch, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, standing on the left, prays with and challenges three National Guardsmen, who told him they were Christians, to live a Godly life. The men were standing in the heat to direct traffic July 13 for an Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief kitchen set up at Escambia Baptist Church in Flomaton from which American Red Cross vehicles pick up meals to deliver to neighborhoods devastated by Hurricane Dennis. With Welch is Alabama Baptist Convention executive director Rick Lance.

Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

At New Hope Baptist Church in Century, Fla., Southern Baptist Convention president, Bobby Welch, who is also pastor of First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, encourages Irving Stallworth, pastor of the predominantly black congregation which meets in a 29,000 sq. foot facility, leased from the county for one dollar. Formerly a school, the facility houses a newly renovated sanctuary with a seating capacity of 500—the same as the number of meals distributed from American Red Cross vehicles on the church’s site July 13 as part of ongoing relief efforts related to Hurricane Dennis.

Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

A large tree fell on Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, just south of Century, Fla., in rural Escambia County during Hurricane Dennis, while other felled trees, casualties of last year’s Hurricane Ivan, still litter the church’s cemetery. Throughout his two-day, two-state tour to areas affected by Hurricane Dennis July 13-14, Bobby Welch, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, stopped to pray with the church’s pastor, James Hughes, a retired engineer, who was also previously a missionary to Nigeria. “You’re not out in the bush—you’re under the bush here,” Welch quipped.

Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

At the steps of rural Robinsville Baptist Church in Ala. July 13, Southern Baptist Convention President Bobby Welch joins with Alabama Baptist Convention Executive Director Rick Lance; Bobby Musselwhite, director of missions for the Santa Rosa Baptist Association in Florida; and others to pray with the church’s pastor. Engineers earlier said the building’s foundation had been damaged when Hurricane Dennis struck with high winds and pounding rain. “There’s a lot more struggle here than meets the eye,” Welch prayed.

Photo by Amy Adams/Florida Baptist Disaster Relief

Powell Adams, a Florida Baptist Disaster Relief volunteer from Hiland Park Baptist Church in Panama City, Fla., cuts limbs July 13 from a tree fallen by Hurricane Dennis. Heavy winds and high tides from the Category 3 storm devastated parts of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi July 10.

Photo by Amy Adams/Florida Baptist Disaster Relief

Florida Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers from Hiland Park Baptist Church in Panama City swarm over the roof of a house in Santa Rosa County where Hurricane Dennis slammed into the coast July 10, ripping off blue tarps left 10 months ago by Hurricane Ivan.

Photo by Kathy Farabee/Florida Baptist Disaster Relief

Sharp blades for chainsaws are important to clean-up and recovery crews working in Santa Rosa County with Florida Baptist Disaster Relief following Hurricane Dennis which slammed the Gulf Coast July 10.

Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

Mitch Bryant, a member of Union Baptist Church in Newberry, works in Navarre after Hurricane Dennis. Bryant, a “blue hat” leader of a Florida Baptist Disaster Relief unit from the Harmony Baptist Association in Florida worked July 15 to clear debris from a mostly destroyed mobile home in Navarre, Fla., where a recently widowed woman and her German shepherd are living in one room until she can make other arrangements.

Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

Workers assist in cleanup of a mobile home in Navarre. Just one room was left standing after Hurricane Dennis flung a tree branch at the home where a widowed woman and her dog live.

Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

Buddy Rouse, a member of First Baptist Church in Rockledge, Fla., and a chaplain for the Florida Baptist Disaster Relief ministry, helped a recently widowed 58-year-old woman in Navarre get help in the wake of Hurricane Dennis. The woman and her German shepherd are living in one room of her mostly destroyed mobile home until she can make other arrangements.