The powerful Hurricane Ivan made landfall on Thursday along the Alabama gulf shores, leaving eight dead in its path. While Ivan’s waves destroyed homes and knocked power from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, its impact was not as strongly felt as its two predecessors, Charley and Frances. As Alabama residents are bracing for the worst, relief efforts in Florida resumed by Sept 15, 2004.

Two Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) mobile kitchen units in Florida resumed meal preparations for the victims of the first two hurricanes. The two units, stationed at Southside Baptist Church in Deland, Fla and the First Baptist Church in Chiefland, Fla., were the first two of hundreds of SBC relief units to get back on track; the other units remain on standby in staging areas in Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama.

About 35 SBC units from Arkansas, Iowa, Illonois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas are staged at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. And eight units from Louisiana and Texas are on standby at the Living Water Baptist Assembly in Covington, La. The Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Oklahoma Baptist conventions have units on standby in their respective states.

To view a two minute video from the SBC’s hurricane relief team, visit www.namb.net. Photos of the efforts are also online at http://www.namb.net/dr/drphotos.