(CNN) Pastor Joel Osteen has opened the doors of his megachurch in Houston to evacuees and wants Harvey survivors to know the space is available, he told CNN on Wednesday morning. "We're housing hundreds of people that have been displaced by the flooding. All day today and yesterday, we've been receiving supplies," Osteen told CNN's Chris Cuomo, responding to criticism that he didn't open Lakewood Church to the needy soon enough. As flooding ravaged parts of Houston and left thousands without shelter, Twitter users lambasted the televangelist, saying he should have opened Lakewood sooner. But the church complex, which can hold more than 16,000 people, was "inaccessible due to severe flooding," its staff reported on social media Sunday afternoon. Photos provided by the church Monday to CNN show flooding inside a building and on a street.Church should have opened to evacuees sooner, critics say on TwitterThe facility prepped to take in people after public shelters filled up, the pastor told CNN
A handful of staff and maintenance workers rode out of the worst of _ at the facility to keep tabs on flooding, Iloff said.