VIDEO: Hache Grant Delivers Sheds to Pointe Aux Chenes Residents in Need

Driving into Pointe Aux Chenes felt like time has stopped since Hurricane Ida as debris that once was homes still laid strewn across properties. Despite the lengthy recovery process, fishermen waved as they pulled up crab traps on a beautiful sunny afternoon.

The Hache Grant Association has served the lower bayou communities since Ida’s landfall and is known to find solutions to problems our community faces. Their most recent initiative brought tears to recipients’ faces.

The organization delivered climate-controlled insulated sheds to five Pointe Aux Chenes residents yesterday. Jason Bergeron, Hache Grant Association Treasurer, said they found a need for sheds because residents who have lost their homes didn’t have a secure way to store their items. This led them to partner with Bud Light, Buquet Distributing, Shell Offshore, and Morris P Hebert for the Bayou Terrebonne Tailgating event that led to funding to further the association’s helping reach. Bergeron said they looked all over the country for the five sheds and finally found Stor-Mor Sheds in Alabama.

The organization partnered with two local churches, White Oak Baptist Church and St. Charles Catholic Church, to find those in need the most. The first recipient was Earl Billiot who received a FEMA mobile trailer just last week. It is still being set up for occupation, but he said he’s excited to move forward and rebuild. He is a fisherman and said he always will stay faithful to his home that has always provided for his family.

Samaritan’s Purse was helping fix siding on Esther Billiot’s house when the trailer pulled up loaded with sheds. Billiot was speechless and cried when she found out the air-conditioned shed is her and her husband’s to keep. Her home, or what’s left of it, still stands on stilts and she said they are still trying to figure out if they are going to rebuild or demolish the family home. Looking at it, there are exterior walls missing and you can see straight into what was the kitchen where pots still line the countertops. They were living in a camper until they finally received the FEMA mobile trailer which she shared it took a month to finally move into. Her husband is a fisherman and she said they are excited to finally feel like they are moving forward.

Bergeron said it took six weeks to get the sheds in, “I wish it could have been sooner,” he said,” coming down here, I feel like it’s a drop in the bucket, but we’re just chipping at it one day at a time…If you have a need, let Hache Grant know so we can fulfill it.”