SOUTHWEST COUNTY – After waiting more than two years to replace her home damaged by Hurricane Ike, Laura Peters and her family received an early Christmas present Thursday.
Although construction won’t be finished until sometime next week, officials with Montgomery County Community Development presented Peters with the keys to a new four-bedroom modular home on the same site of her former storm-ravaged house.
“It’s wonderful,” Peters declared as workers hurried to assemble the 1,400-square-foot residence. “I wasn’t certain this day would ever arrive. But now that it has, I can’t tell you how excited I am for all the help I’ve received.
“There’s almost no words for how I’m feeling.”
Peters, her husband Oliver and their five children (ages 3-15) are the first family in Montgomery County to receive a new home through the Hurricane Ike Rehabilitation and Replacement Program.
Fifty-four new homes and nine rehabilitated homes qualified for the $6.9 million in federal funding made available for Ike-related damage in Montgomery County. MCCD has worked on the block grant since September 2009. The second home is expected to be completed in Willis by Christmas.
All 54 homes are expected to be completed by next summer, according to the MCCD.
“Other local agencies have been helpful to each of these families in many different ways, including financial assistance, furniture replacement and case management,” said Joanne Ducharme, director of MCCD.
Peters found additional support from the members of her church, First Baptist of Magnolia. The congregation’s “Fresh Start” program is providing furniture for the new home.
“Thank God for the church and the members,” she said.
Attending the ceremony Thursday were First Baptist members John Paul and Judy Watson. Their relationship with Peters goes back decades when she was a student at Magnolia Elementary and the Watsons were employed at the school.
“We fell in love with Laura a long time ago,” Judy Watson said. “She’s been special to us.”
Peters hasn’t forgotten the night she rode out the hurricane with her family and a couple of friends.
“The wind lifted the roof off of the building,” she said. “I wasn’t convinced we’d make it.”
While Peters waited for approval of her grant request, she could only watch as her single-wide mobile home started to deteriorate. Mold began to accumulate to such an extent, she moved some of her children in with relatives to protect their health.
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