by Rod D. Martin
July 10, 2005

For those of you who have expressed concern, we are very grateful to report that we personally suffered no major damage in today’s assualt by Hurricane Dennis.

The storm came ashore this afternoon, dead-center on the wreckage of our former home, destroyed by Hurricane Ivan last fall, in Gulf Breeze.

We ask everyone to pray for the millions of people affected here in Florida, in Alabama, and throughout the storm’s track. We also encourage everyone to give generously to agencies such as Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, Florida Baptist Disaster Relief, the Salvation Army, the American Red Cross, and the many others whose efforts will now play a crucial role in the relief and reconstruction, and whose contributions last year were indispensable to this area’s recovery.

Make no mistake: Northwest Florida and Southern Alabama remain horribly wounded from last year’s storm. Half the housing in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties alone was either destroyed or subject to condemnation following Ivan, and countless families still live in unrepaired homes or FEMA-provided house trailers. Today’s hurricane, the damage from which remains uncalculated, will have done incalculable harm to innumerable people, folks just like you and me. Do whatever you can for them. And please pray that we have seen the worst, not merely the first, of this year’s hurricane season.