Kentucky native Chuck Poe can identify with a familiar television advertisement that says “we know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.” He’s serving at a Florida church for the second time, and has been in the crosshairs of a major hurricane for the second time.
Poe, who grew up in Hopkinsville and served as minister of students and families at Second Baptist and as pastor of New Barren Springs Baptist Church [in Christian County], moved to Florida in January this year to take the helm as lead pastor of Calvary Baptist Church [in Arcadia]. It’s the same church where he served as youth pastor almost nine and a half years ago.
“I was here when Hurricane Charley hit in 2004, so I knew a little about what was going to happen,” Poe said. “We decided not to leave (our home) because people would need us here afterwards.”
Their house sustained only minor damage when Hurricane Ian hit southwest Florida last weekend. Their church sustained some damage, but flooding has been the most disruptive aspect of Ian’s wrath.
“When Ian hit it lasted six to seven hours and we never got a break,” Poe noted, comparing it to Hurricane Charley which hit and was out of the area in minutes.
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“We were in the eye wall of the storm,” he said, referring to the location within a hurricane where the most damaging winds and intense rainfall is found. That resulted in the Peace River rising so much that roads were covered and in some cases washed out.
“Since Thursday we have been landlocked,” Poe noted.
Arcadia is 50 miles inland from the Gulf Coast, and when the Peace River flooded it cut off thousands of homes.
“I couldn’t get to church on Sunday, so our worship pastor (David Langley) and interim youth pastor (Brandon Long) led the service. We had about 50 show up for worship,” Poe said, which is down from an average of about 150.
“Monday morning I got an airboat ride into town, and today (Tuesday) it took two hours to make what is normally a four-mile round trip.”
Poe has been able to call to check on the majority of people in the church, and said people have been overwhelmingly positive. “The No. 1 response I heard was, ‘We have been so blessed.’ Probably 90 percent of the people said that — even ones who lost their homes when the flood waters took them.”
Poe added that he and his congregation are thankful for the prayers of people. “We have definitely felt them.”
He said Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief has a kitchen crew set up to start cooking meals, but is having to wait for food to arrive. “Hopefully it will start Wednesday.” The Red Cross is also in the community with chainsaw and mud-out crews working.
Chip Hutcheson is a content strategist for Kentucky Today, the online news website of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. He also does supply preaching and interim pastorates. He retired as publisher of The Times Leader newspaper in Princeton in 2017 after serving as a publisher for 41 years. He previously served as president of the Kentucky Press Association, Kentucky Baptist Convention and the National Newspaper Association.
