by SUSAN CRATON, Staff writer

Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN Brian Hart of Glen Burnie, team leader for a group of volunteers with Southern Baptist Disaster Relief working in North Town Creek on Wednesday, tosses a section of the tree that the team had just removed from an elderly couple’s home.

Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN Mako Kneale of Waldorf, a member of First Baptist Church in Upper Marlboro, works Wednesday morning with other members of her volunteer Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team to remove storm debris from the yard of a North Town Creek home.  

The Rev. Mark Dooley, pastor of Leonardtown Baptist Church, told a story about damage wrought by Hurricane Irene and that damage isn’t only physical.

“Let me tell you a story of hope,” he said.

Dooley was sitting Wednesday morning at a table at his church with organizers of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief efforts in Southern Maryland, which are focused primarily on St. Mary’s and Calvert counties.

The Maryland-Delaware Baptist Convention’s trained disaster relief teams are using Leonardtown Baptist as headquarters and camp for out-of-town volunteers as they, along with local church members, are offering free tree removal and hurricane cleanup assistance to area homeowners.  Full Article