LADY LAKE, Fla. - When violent storms tore through central Florida on Friday, Feb. 2, the Lady Lake Church of God was leveled by a tornado that literally tore the building to pieces.
A day later parishioners were wading through rubble that hardly resembled the 30-year-old church, and trying to rescue a few relics and clear an area in time for Sunday morning services.
Wearing a dusty and sweat-stained jacket, parishioner William Countryman crawled in and out of the ruins on Saturday afternoon, ducking under twisted sheet metal and remnants of insulation in search of pieces of the church's Christmas nativity set.
"When we find the manger it's going to mean a lot to the church and the pastor," Countryman, who has been a parishioner for nearly a decade, explained as he pulled back broken boards in search of the white and gold-colored nativity set.
"It might take me a couple of hours, but I'll find it," he said. Less than an hour later he emerged carrying a battered cardboard box with "Nativity Set" written on the side in black marker.
Nearby Pastor Larry Lynn watched the members of his congregation sift through the damaged church and remove splintered tree limbs from its front yard. He said although the church's structure was destroyed, there were no injuries in his 232-member congregation.
"The church is still solid and strong “ it's just the building that's gone," he said. "We'll rebuild."
Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency in four Florida counties damaged by the storms, and on Friday and Saturday rode in a Florida National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter to assess the damage from the air. He also toured devastated areas with Adjutant General Douglas Burnett, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director David Paulison, and state and federal lawmakers.
"When I came down here yesterday morning for the first time I just couldn't believe it," Crist said during a press conference at the Church of God on Saturday. "We've had a lot of hurricanes the past few years in our state, but the intensity of these tornados is remarkable."
Twenty people died in areas affected by the storms.
The Florida National Guard dispatched more than 40 Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, to help in the recovery effort. The Soldiers assisted emergency responders on Saturday by operating three ice and water distribution points in Lady Lake and nearby Paisley, Fla.
According to one of the Florida National Guard helicopter pilots who flew the governor during his damage assessment flights, destruction was isolated to a narrow path.
"It is a lot like what I've seen on every hurricane I've worked since Hurricane Andrew [in 1992]," said Chief Warrant Officer John Rawls of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 171st Aviation Regiment. "The only difference is that this is a concentrated area. Outside of that it is undisturbed with a hurricane a massive area is destroyed."