In this Oct. 14, 2018 photo Dena Frost salvages an unbroken clay pot from the wreckage of her pottery business in Mexico Beach, Fla. For decades, the town has persisted as a stubbornly middlebrow enclave on what residents proudly refer to as Florida's "Forgotten Coast." Businesses are locally owned. While some locals owned posh homes that overlooked the beach on stilts, many lived in mobile homes. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)

MOULTRIE, Ga. — In Colquitt County, many homeowners have gone days without power in the wake of Hurricane Michael. In coastal Florida, many homeowners have gone without homes following the massive hurricane that came ashore a week ago.

Even as local people are trying to find their way back to normal, they are reaching out to help those who have suffered even more.

Jim Lowry, a Moultrian who owns a second home in Port St. Joe, Fla., has made connections between Moultrie churches and the mayor of Port St. Joe to funnel needed supplies to the Florida coast.

“What we need is a lot of a few items,” Lowry explained.

He has a list of five items that are in high demand from the ministerial association in Port St. Joe, which is distributing the relief supplies. The association will update the list weekly. Next week may be the same as this week, or there could be different needs as the situation changes along the coast.

This week, the list consists of:

• 200 one-gallon containers of bleach.

• 200 packages of disposable plastic gloves.

• 100 tarps of various sizes.

• 100 containers of laundry soap.

• 200 pairs of cotton work gloves.

Lowry is teaming with four churches — First Presbyterian, First Baptist, First Methodist and Trinity Baptist — and with The Moultrie Observer to split the list up. Each church will choose one of the items, and it will ask each member of its congregation to bring one or two of that item to the church.

This week, First Methodist, 409 First St. S.E., will collect donations of bleach; First Baptist, East Fifth Avenue, will collect disposable plastic gloves; Trinity Baptist, 201 12th Ave. S.E., will collect tarps; and First Presbyterian, 501 First St. S.E., will collect laundry detergent.

The Observer’s role is a little bit different. We are not a drop-off site, but we are asking our readers to participate by taking one or two pairs of cotton work gloves to one of the participating churches. The churches will box them up along with their own collection.

Dropoffs will be accepted 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday at the fellowship halls of all four churches.

All the donations will be loaded on a tractor-trailer being provided by Steadman and Philip Taylor of Broadleaf Trucking, which will deliver them to a distribution center in Port St. Joe. The items will be given out to the people who need them throughout the coastal area, Lowry said.

Lowry said if people would prefer to give monetary donations, please make checks out to The Port St. Joe Ministerial Association. The truck driver will take a packet of any such donations to Port St. Joe when he takes the other items.

Lowry pointed out this is only one of many ministries of the churches that are involved. He said all are helping locally and farther afield in the wake of the storm.