One of the most vocal of them all is former Lakewood worship leader, Israel Houghton, who said “Every time there’s been a natural disaster in Houston, Lakewood has always been on the forefront of helping out and this is not gonna be any exception, They were criticizing out of ignorance we know the whole story. The bottom floor of Lakewood was in danger of being flooded. Now that it receded, everybody’s good.”
Pastor Joel Osteen also commented saying: “I don’t know if it’s unfounded but I think if people were here they’d realize there were safety issues; this building had flooded before, and so we were just being precautious. But the main thing is the city didn’t ask us to become a shelter then.
“It’s easy to say ‘wow, there’s that big building and they’re not using it.’ But we don’t have volunteers and we don’t have staff that could get here,” Osteen said, noting that people even across the street from the church were stranded due to the flooding. “Think of the story if we would’ve housed a whole bunch of evacuees and the building flooded … We try to use the best wisdom we can … We’ve been here for 60 years to help this city and be a blessing to others and that’s what we’re going to continue to do,” he said
Ex presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz also weighed in. He said: “You know, I’ve seen the attacks on Twitter and it’s not surprising, Many of the people attacking are people who would tear down church leaders anyway, and so you could expect those attacks to come.”
