Televangelist Jesse Duplantis recently donated over $100,000 to the victims of Hurricane Ida in New Orleans, Louisiana. The storm struck the area at the end of last month, causing great damage. More than 1,000,000 people were left without electricity, and power is not expected to return until the end of September in some areas.
Duplantis, the lead pastor of Covenant Church who asked viewers to donate $55 million for a jet in 2018, received backlash from critics who claimed that he did not do enough to support victims of the storm. He and his wife, Cathy defended themselves in a Facebook video last Tuesday protesting that they did give back to the community after the devastation.
“We’re helping people literally all over, everywhere,” Duplantis said. “The problem is when you come and look at our ministry you can’t see any of that because we had oak trees down, breaking this and we had to get all that stuff out. Thank God for people that came and helped us do all of those things.”
“You’re hearing all kinds of rumors that we’re not doing this, and we’re not doing [that], that’s all a bunch of malarkey. I could use another word, but you understand what I’m talking about,” Duplantis continued.
He eventually revealed that his ministry had already donated over $100,000 for generators and plans to give more.
“I made up my mind that we’re going to be a blessing…We’ve already given away $100,000 worth of generators, so God had been so good. Not trying to brag about that,’’ he said. “We want to do more, and we are going to do more. I mean, I’ve never seen so many trees.”
The televangelist also revealed that the church is supplying food for the community.
“Not only have we’ve been giving out physical food, all those kinds of things. But you know, people don’t want to hear that because you gotta touch the heart of an individual” he added.
According to CBS Evening News, Hurricane Ida killed at least 65 people, 16 along the Gulf Coast and 49 in the North-East. It was the 5th largest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland. Troy Thomas, whose home was destroyed in the storm, described what he heard while everything was occurring.
“The sound of it as well, I’ll never get it out of my head, the sound of everything just cracking and breaking.