Covenant-Built Homes Withstand Gustav’s Fury

Post a Comment » Written on September 4th, 2008     
Filed under: News
PLAQUEMINES PARISH, LA (September 4, 2008) – All of the homes built by members of the Evangelical Covenant Church in this area devastated by Hurricane Katrina survived Hurricane Gustav with little or no damage.

Benny Puckett, director of Hands of Hope Ministries, the main partner with Covenant World Relief in rebuilding the houses, flew over the homes on Wednesday and drove by many today. “It’s not a surprise to me that they stood,” Puckett said. “I saw them built.”

The homes were built to withstand winds of 140 mph, he said. Gustav’s winds reached 100 mph in the area.

Homes that still are in the process of being constructed also withstood the storm. “I think that really speaks well for the work of the volunteers,” Puckett said. He noted that many of the volunteers had never done construction work prior to traveling to the area.

More than 2,000 members from roughly 250 Covenant churches have worked in Plaquemines since Katrina hit. CWR has spent $1.1 million donated by Covenanters.

Puckett, who also works for the parish as a grants administrator, said all of the levees held and no areas were flooded. Two homes built by Covenanters in Braithwaite, a Plaquemines community, were in danger of being flooded when a levee overtopped, but crews worked through the night adding sandbags, Puckett said.

Puckett flew over the parish on Wednesday to film and document the effects of the storm and how well government efforts after Katrina had prepared the area to withstand future hurricanes.

Power still needs to be restored, but the parish was opened at noon today so that evacuees could return to their homes.

To read a previous Covenant online news story about the work of Covenanters in the Gulf Coast over the past three years, see Katrina.

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