Jean Gordon
Wednesday, November 17, 2021 1:29 pm

Eleven members of Florence Baptist Church traveled to Canton recently to assist people who suffered property damage due to Tropical Storm Fred in August.

Tommy Holland led the mission team and others were Ralph Lewis, Greg Park, Tom and Karen Hamrick, Eddy and Doris Jones, Kerry Brock, Stewart Butler, Tommy Wilson and Jean Gordon.

The Hamricks and Holland, regular volunteers with NC Baptist on Missions, worked in Canton during the first days of the disaster offering immediate relief and food to hundreds affected by the storm.

Bill Martin of Winston-Salem is the site coordinator in Canton for the NC Baptist on Mission.

He works out of the Calvary Baptist Church each day to assign mission teams to respective jobs. He also helps on the job site and hauls supplies and materials as necessary.

The Florence team completely tore the deck from a home and other flooded areas including a screened-in porch.

Insulation in a room that had been flooded was removed and new insulation and sheetrock were installed by one team.

A double door and the screened-in porch had to be torn down and removed. New doors were installed.

While those projects were ongoing, other team members began the process of removing remnants of a deck that had been washed away by the flood waters. When this was done volunteers began the process of building a new deck.

"It had a lot of angles and it was complicated, but our guys did a great job," said Karen Hamrick.

The team actually built two ramps and a set of stairs off the deck.

The team remained on the job about eight hours before packing up to travel back down the mountain.

The job was not totally completed so a small group went back Monday to finish.

"We did not get it completed. We ran out of materials and energy about 4 p.m." said Hamrick. "We had a great time and the homeowners were so appreciative."

According to Martin there are approximately two dozen homes that still need urgent repairs.

"We hope to get these done before winter," he said.

There were about 60 homes on the initial list for repairs.

Anyone interested in helping with the recovery of the area, can visit the NC Baptist on Mission website at www.baptistsonmission.org or call. 1-800-395-5102, ext. 5605.