Editor’s note: Tarah Jean published the original article on the Tallahassee Democrat. https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/fsu-news/2024/10/04/fsu-fraternity-helps-church-near-perry-recover-from-hurricane-helene/75482618007/
A Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) fraternity chapter at Florida State University is doing what it can to help those affected by Hurricane Helene, which includes assisting a church outside of Perry as it recovers from eight feet of floodwater.
FSU’s Florida Beta Chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity lent a helping hand to Blue Creek Baptist Church in Keaton Beach, a Gulf coast community in the southern part of Taylor County, after it was hit by the Category 4 storm.
Pastor Justin Goins of Blue Creek Baptist Church described the storm’s aftermath as a “snow globe” effect.
“When you shake a snow globe full of water, the way everything sets down afterward is exactly what happened,” Goins told the Tallahassee Democrat Wednesday. “My church was full of water, and everything inside of it floated. When the storm surge went back out, everything settled down, but we had about four inches of mud from front to back and church stuff everywhere.”
As the church works on recovering, Goins says the process could take over a year and could mean having to move temporarily to another building.
Helene crashed into the Florida coast near Perry in Taylor County as a Category 4 storm with winds up to 140 mph the night of Sept. 26. The storm left thousands without power; some of the other hardest hit counties were Dixie, Suwannee and Madison, which were knocked totally off the grid.
President Joe Biden flew into Tallahassee Thursday morning to survey the hurricane’s damage in Perry and Keaton Beach, which was still trying to recover from Hurricane Idalia when it crushed the Nature Coast a little over a year ago.
A day and a half after Helene, about 30 FSU students of the 224-member fraternity chapter drove to Keaton Beach from Tallahassee, expecting to simply pick up tree limbs and debris around the church.
But what they were faced with were inches of mud both in and out of the church building and damaged furniture scattered all around.
“They were kind of (overwhelmed) by the damage when they arrived, but they did a great job and had a great attitude,” Goins said.
The fraternity members – who couldn’t be reached for comment – helped with mucking and gutting as they removed sludge and soaked furniture for six hours while volunteering. They got about 90% of everything out of the church, and Goins said the same work would have probably taken the church’s members a few days to complete.
“They got in the mud with their great clothes and great shoes, and their beautiful cars got all muddied up,” Goins said, “but they stayed and did an amazing job.”
The fraternity chapter is a part of FSU’s Interfraternity Council, which is the governing body for 18 men’s fraternities on the university’s campus. The students found out about the volunteer opportunity through Volunteer Florida, a nonprofit organization in Tallahassee that focuses on community service across the state.
“After evacuating themselves – with a lot of them living in south Florida – they chose to head straight to the impacted area to help with the recovery,” Volunteer Florida’s External Affairs Director Brittany Dover told the Democrat.
“We are incredibly grateful to the members for their commitment to serving our community in the wake of Hurricane Helene.”
