Local pastor serving as spiritual care lead for Red Cross in wake of Hurricane Irma

Rev. Brad Whitaker, from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chattanooga, serves a young client at a Red Cross shelter. He is serving as spiritual care lead with the Red Cross in Marathon, Florida.
Rev. Brad Whitaker, from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chattanooga, serves a young client at a Red Cross shelter. He is serving as spiritual care lead with the Red Cross in Marathon, Florida.

A local pastor is spending two weeks in the Florida Keys to serve as the spiritual care lead for the Red Cross in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

Rev. Brad Whitaker, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, went to Florida Sept. 14 and began helping.

"The damage from Irma is already obvious in Miami and simply grows in intensity with every mile driven southward," Whitaker wrote in a news release. "The amount and diversity of debris and wreckage on the right side of Hwy. 1 is both mind-numbing and dangerous as much of it spills over into the right-hand lane."

Whitaker provides spiritual care to victims of the hurricanes on behalf of the Red Cross.

Whitaker was originally asked to go help Hurricane Harvey victims but was soon called back to ask if he'd consider waiting and going to Florida instead. He is working 15-to-18-hour days, he said, and has interacted with more than 500 people, he wrote in the release. He is required to keep track and report numbers on a daily basis.

He is asking people to pray for all those impacted by the recent hurricanes around the world.

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