By Chris Hughes
When the state of Florida got hit by back-to-back hurricanes within two weeks, Kenny Phillips was ready to respond, loading up his truck with as many supplies as he could fit in his vehicle and heading south to see where he could help.
“I called my buddies up, and I grabbed a handful of them, we started loading up every tarp we could get, every container that we could get gas in, as much ice as we could bring and about 10 ginormous coolers, muck-out buckets and just started heading south,” he explained.
By buddies, Phillips means the group he worked closely with in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, an unprecedented Category 5 hurricane that made landfall and battered Florida’s panhandle in 2018. It’s relationships like these that Phillips has cultivated over his eight years as disaster response coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Florida and the Caribbean Islands that are key to his work.
According to the National Weather Service, Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 storm on September 26, 2024, in the Big Bend area of the Florida Gulf Coast. Its impacts were felt from the Gulf Coast to southern Appalachia, especially in places like western North Carolina where widespread and devastating flooding left thousands stranded without power, killing hundreds and causing billions in property damage.
Thirteen days later, Hurricane Milton swept west to east over Florida, making its way from the Gulf Coast out into the Atlantic Ocean. It did not make landfall as a Category 5 hurricane as was expected, but was diminished to a Category 3 by increasing wind shear. Still, it hit the Sunshine State with torrential rainfall of 15 inches or more in some areas and unleashed at least 19 confirmed tornadoes.
Phillips planned to follow the crook of Florida’s panhandle from his base in Fort Walton Beach to find where he was needed most. His trek took him first to a town called Panacea, but he found the damage there wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. That’s where a chaplain with the sheriff’s office told Phillips about a tiny fishing village further south down the coastline called Steinhatchee, where his help was desperately needed.
When he arrived at Steinhatchee, the devastation was overwhelming. “There was just not a lot left standing. There’s one grocery store in town; it was totally demolished. There are only two gas stations; those gas stations are gone. A handful of restaurants are all gone,” he said.
“This whole community is pretty much gone,” Phillips concluded.
The village has a population of 1,049 people, according to 2020 U.S. census data. The median income is $28,750, with only about 40 percent of the village employed. It’s a transient town, Phillips explains, with a good chunk of people who come to hunt and fish, but don’t permanently live there. “It’s kind of a little forgotten place, and I’m really glad that the Lord brought us there.”
The Lord led Phillips further in Steinhatchee when he and his first responders were helping to clear a path to a woman’s trailer. “She kept saying, ‘You need to talk to my pastor,’ and I said, ‘Give me your pastor’s name, I want to talk to him.’”
That’s how Phillips got connected with Pastor Davy Cannon and his church, the Friendship Chapel Church of God, a Pentecostal church on Highway 51, right by the Steinhatchee River. The church was founded in 1984 and has about 50 worshipers.
From wind damage to flooding and more, Cannon says every one of his church members was impacted by the duo of hurricanes. “We’re actually at brother Bob Nelson’s house right now,” he cites as one example. “He was heavily affected—about eight inches of water in his house and his house is two-and-a-half feet off the ground. So there was a little over three feet of water roughly, right here in his front yard. He’s just one of many.
“But not one in my church came in going, ‘Hallelujah, nothing happened,’” he added.
Cannon says the landlines and internet are down, and lack of clean water and working sewers is a problem. Homes have suffered heavy water and wind damage. While many of the roadways have been cleared of debris, the pastor says people’s homes remain in bad shape. “The moment you step off into a person’s yard, you recognize just how much work still has to be done throughout the county,” he said.
Through Friendship Chapel Church of God, Phillips has set up a base of operations in partnership with CBF Disaster Response. He quickly received hundreds of donations of critical items, from “muck-out buckets” carrying cleaning supplies to paper towels and toilet paper to non-perishable food. The items are distributed just as soon as they arrive.
Every usable space is being utilized for recovery as well. Since the storms, church members have been living in the fellowship hall. “We’re down to just one family, but now we still have them living in the churchyard because I allow them to park their emergency campers at the churchyard. They don’t have anywhere to park them,” Cannon explained.
Phillips has secured a shower trailer so that CBF Disaster Response and CBF Florida can begin hosting mission teams to aid in the recovery work. He says the fellowship hall can be partitioned to make a room for men and another for women, and there are working bathrooms. Phillips says the focus for the first mission teams will be cleanup and debris removal, and later teams will work on minor repairs.
For those wanting to help at a distance, monetary donations can be made to CBF Disaster Response.
Forging partnerships with local churches is critical for Phillips, who has been doing disaster recovery around the world for 23 years. “It’s very important that we listen to people, and listen to the church, and listen to the community, because they know their community better than I’ll ever know,” he shared. “We have to find churches, no matter who they are, to work within these communities because they have the heartbeat of the community.”
On the ground, both Phillips and Cannon believe the recovery process will take months, if not years, especially due to how widespread the damage is. “There’s a hundred communities just like the ones we’re working in and I just don’t know who’s helping in those other areas,” Phillips shared.
“I guarantee you at least a year from now, people are still going to be cleaning up from the storm,” Cannon said. That’s why he urges people to remember his community, even after the news coverage passes. “Don’t forget about them. It’s easy to get forgotten. And when you suffer a tragedy like this and the resources are needed, you know, but if people forget, then we’re stuck here with no help.”
Still, recovery work is Gospel work as Phillips sees it. It has the power to remind people of God’s mission in the world. “It tends to bring a lot of people together for a common cause and my hope in all this is we can always stay on common ground. We’re God’s people and God gave us an opportunity; He wants us to love our neighbor and treat our neighbors like we want to be treated,” Phillips concluded.
This story was originally published in CBF’s Fellowship! magazine. To read more stories like this one or order a print copy of the magazine, please visit cbf.net/fellowship-magazine/