First Baptist Church of Orange (corner of 5th and Green Ave.)

These were taken by my longtime friend Chris Kovatch, who stayed in Orange with his father-in-law. These are the saddest for me of the pictures I've seen. This is the church where I grew up, where my parents still attend, and where my sister got married last year.

As you can see, the water's well inside the building, but the good news is that the white part on the bottom of the building is basement, so hopefully the water only filled the basement and not the sanctuary above. The office part of the building is also slightly higher (top picture, left building with black-rimmed windows), so it might have been spared. Still, I can only imagine that structural damage will result from the water in the basement, so it could still be quite a big loss.


















This is the opposite corner of the building, the back entrance to the gym. This part of the church was used as a shelter for Katrina victims in 2005, and includes a kitchen, the nursery, many classrooms, racquetball courts, a weight room, and shower facilities. You can see how high the water is by looking at the kitchen door.


















As I mentioned before, this church congregation had plans to build a new facility on MLK Drive sometime in the next few years, so perhaps it's time to go there now. It is just unfortunate that they weren't quite finished with this building yet.