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As Hurricane Francine came ashore in coastal Terrebonne Parish with 100 mph winds, 52 families in Dulac, South Lafourche, and Grand Isle enjoyed the safety of their new FORTIFIED Gold storm-resilient homes built through Bayou Community Foundation’s Hurricane Ida Housing Recovery Program since January 2022.
“We lost everything we had in Hurricane Ida, but in this storm, our new house did amazing. No damages! We hardly felt anything,” explains Darlene and Adam Trosclair in Dulac. “We are so grateful for everyone who helped us. It is truly amazing how protected we felt inside this home.”
The Trosclair’s strong home was one of 52 completed by Bayou Community Foundation’s volunteer building partners Mennonite Disaster Service Storm Aid and CARE, and local contractors in the Foundation’s housing recovery efforts since Hurricane Ida.
“We are so excited to report that all of our homes passed the Francine test with flying colors and, most importantly, provided resilient protection to families who had lost so much when Ida made landfall here only three years ago. What a difference a strong home makes! Thanks to our generous donors and partners, not only does our housing recovery program demonstrate the power of philanthropy and volunteers to help families recover quickly and effectively, we also are strengthening the resiliency of our entire coastal community for future storms,” said Bayou Community Foundation Executive Director Jennifer Armand.
In 2019, the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, Inc. – FLASH gathered its generous partners to create the STRONG HOMES program. Strong Homes provides affordable, resilient recovery reconstruction upgrades for those hardest hit by disaster, and who often find it nearly impossible to recover.
After Hurricane Ida, FLASH joined forces with Bayou Community Foundation and Mennonite Disaster Service to provide free engineering services, construction evaluations, and product discounts/donations to ensure that our housing recovery new builds would meet the nation’s highest wind construction standard—FORTIFIED Gold.
