News Articles by Vanessa Rodriguez

Needs then & now The immediate needs have been met – such as a hot meal for Alicia Rosas, holding her six-day-old baby, after Hurricane Ivan – but home repairs continue to be needed throughout Florida and elsewhere on the Gulf Coast after by Ivan and Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne. Photo by Ken Touchton/Florida Baptist Convention

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BP)--Hurricane Charley’s forceful winds uprooted more than the banyan tree in the Conger family’s yard last August. It overturned their lives as they lost their jobs, home and all of their personal belongings.
    “I have three boys,” Kristen Conger said. “You try to protect your children, then they lose everything and you tell them that it’s going to be OK, but I didn’t even think it was going to be OK,” she said.
    Money the family intended to use for repairs covered hotel costs as they sought shelter from the subsequent hurricanes and storms that ravaged Florida. With only a tarp-covered roof and extensive mold damage, the Congers returned home to try and piece together their house and lives.