From bones to beautiful: A hurricane survivor gets her new house

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - No doubt many in Southwest Louisiana still dream of the day they can get back inside their hurricane-ravaged homes, finally restored.

A month and a half ago, Beverly Goodly’s house on Goos Boulevard was stripped to the bones due to damage from Hurricane Laura.

But now, it’s a thoroughly remodeled home, thanks to volunteers from at least four groups - Mennonite Disaster Services, Amish builders, Fuller Center Disaster ReBuilders and United Methodists of Louisiana.

Bill Howell with United Methodist Conference said they are here for the long haul.

“We’re going to see a slowdown at the end of March with the Amish leaving, but then, right on the heels of that, we have volunteers coming in from all over the country,” Howell said. “And they will be here until September when we bring the Amish back. The Amish will be back, and they will stay until March 2023.”

Greta Willis with Fuller Center Disaster ReBuilders said they too plan to stay around.

“We’re estimating that we probably have another year to two and a half years, maybe three years, of disaster recovery work,” Willis said.

Willis said they all do what they do best in this collaboration - helping to assure homeowners like Goodly get what they are promised.

“I thank you so much,” Goodly said. “These is tears of joy, tears of joy because I’ve been waiting for this for over two years.”

Goodly’s advice to others yearning to go home: Keep the faith and don’t give up.

More information about getting help or volunteering to help is as follows:

• Louisiana Methodist Conference hotline number: 1-337-476-1080
• SWLA Respond’s Facebook page.
• The Fuller Center Disaster Rebuilders
• 211

The volunteers who assist with disaster rebuilding do so only for people who don’t have the money and resources to take care of their own recovery. This can be due to no insurance or insufficient insurance; or insufficient FEMA funds to recover.

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