Joel Osteen, a Texas mega-pastor, offers seven murdered and 1.6 million people
Texas televangelist Joel Osteen has turned his mega church into a cooling station after Beryl left millions in Houston without power– including no air conditioning and the ability to cook food.
Beryl came on shore as a Category 1 hurricane, dumping inches of rain on America’s fourth largest city and battering it with +90 mph winds.
Fierce winds knocked out electricity to 2.7 million customers in the Houston area Monday.
Although electric crews were pre-staged to get to work as soon as the storm moved away, power is still out for 1.6 million, according to state officials who shared a storm update Tuesday afternoon.
Osteen’s Lakewood Church opened up as a cooling station Tuesday morning, the congregation announced on its social media feeds.
‘Lakewood will serve as a cooling and water distribution center, and safe haven for anyone in need,’ the church tweeted.
‘We are also mobilizing our relief teams across the city to distribute supplies, emergency response kits and clean up in areas most impacted from the storm.’
Osteen, a common target of online internet trolls, was roasted by Houstonians as Beryl barreled through the city– despite the pastor’s offer to help anyone impacted by Beryl.
Many still remember the church’s highly criticized response to 2017’s Hurricane Harvey when several churches opened their doors seven years ago to people needing shelter after larges areas of the city were under feet of water because of Harvey.
Lakewood, a well-funded, 17,000-seat congregation housed in a former basketball arena, seemed to only responded after criticism started pouring in.