On the morning of September 18, 2003, Sadie Drew Riddick watched in horror as winds from Hurricane Isabel ravaged Kadesh A.M.E. Zion Church in Edenton, North Carolina. The picturesque town of 4,500 sits near the mouth of the Chowan River, where it enters the Albemarle Sound off the Atlantic Coast. Riddick had been sheltering nearby at her sister’s house when the wind picked up, and she stepped outside to check on her beloved second home. The towering walls of the white frame church creaked. The wind pried up parts of the metal roof and the vinyl siding that had been added over the original heart pine, and sent them sailing. It snapped tree limbs and blasted the church, shattering some of the century-old stained glass windows.
For the People of Edenton, North Carolina, Reviving an Important Church Was a Matter of Faith
