Many find little reason to rebuild after flood, mud and mold

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St. Bernard residents return

Many find little reason to rebuild after flood, mud and mold

http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/091805/new_bernard001.shtml

By DEBRA LEMOINE

dlemoine@...

Advocate staff writer

Advocate staff photo by Spradling

Goodyear pauses near his prized 1937 Buick as he and his

wife, , go through their home and belongings in Arabi

Saturday. They were among some St. Bernard Parish residents who were

allowed back in to their homes Saturday for the first time since

Hurricane Katrina struck.

ARABI -- ph Liemann may have ridden out Hurricane Katrina in

Arabi, but he will not rebuild his home on Esteban Street that is

now covered in mud and mold, he said while salvaging his belongings

on Saturday.

" We're not going to live here, " he said. " We're going to live in

re, " a town in Mississippi.

Liemann was among the residents in St. Bernard Parish allowed to

return to their homes Saturday for the first time since Hurricane

Katrina flooded them on Aug. 29.

For the next week, residents in various parts of St. Bernard Parish

will be allowed to assess their homes, save what they can of their

belongings and then leave by sunset.

For most residents on Saturday, there was little left in their homes

to keep. Roads, vehicles and yards were covered in a thick layer of

Mississippi River mud that has begun to crack as it dries. That mud

was carried by flood waters into the homes where it coated floors,

furniture and bedding and has killed the lawns and shrubs that

adorned the modest homes.

What the mud didn't ruin, the mold has. Splotchy black patches of

mold grow from the water line near most homes' ceilings to the

floors.

Most people who came Saturday to investigate their homes believe the

parish will be rebuilt. The question in some residents' minds is

whether they want to be the ones doing the rebuilding.

The time Liemann spent in harm's way to be with the home he bought

four months ago with his fiancée Riolo did not endear him to

it. When Hurricane Katrina pushed 20-feet or more of storm surge

over St. Bernard Parish on the morning the hurricane hit, Liemann

swam across the street to his neighbor's attic where he stayed for

two days.

Then, he headed for a shelter at Arabi Elementary School and finally

left Arabi to stay with a friend in re, just north of

Picayune, Miss.

Liemann, who runs a plumbing company, buys homes, fixes them up and

later sells them. This is one house, though, he said he can't repair.

A few blocks away on Burgundy Street, and Goodyear

were picking through the remnants of the home they shared for the

past 20 years.

Hurricane Katrina was the first storm that flooded their home, the

Goodyears said. During Hurricane Betsy in 1965, recalls, the

water rose as high as the top front steps to his mother's home next

door.

Because of their experiences, the Goodyears believed they prepared

for the storm before they evacuated.

They moved their keepsakes -- such as pictures and videos -- to the

top of an armoire in the bedroom thinking flood waters wouldn't

reach them there. Instead, the armoire started floating in the

rising water and then flipped over.

" You work for 20 years to get something going, and all of a sudden

it is gone, " Goodyear said.

Looking around their home, he said he already made the decision to

leave the parish and look for a place on the north shore of Lake

Pontchartrain.

" I just don't want to go through this again, " Goodyear said.

Sisters Theresa Heller and Debbie Bueche came to check on their

childhood home for their parents on Street.

" We're not going to rebuild for them, " Heller said. " We're not even

going to let them see it. We want them to remember their home the

way it was. "

Heller, who also lives in Arabi, said she doubts she will rebuild

her ownBERNARDhome either. She and her husband are teachers, and

the Catholic schools where they teach have reopened in Baton Rouge.

" Having to knock down everything and start over with the possibility

it will happen again? " she asked.

At the edge of the neighborhood near Barracks, state Rep.

Ken Odinet Sr., D-Arabi, and five of his sons and sons-in-law were

cleaning up the home on Avenue that Odinet bought from his

father just after Hurricane Betsy struck in 1965. Standing near a

trash pile and wearing a plastic protective suit, Odinet watched the

men scrape debris and mud from the floors of his home.

But Odinet, whose family has lived in Arabi since 1881, said he will

gut the home and rebuild. He doesn't know what his homeowner's

insurance will pay, but he does not have flood insurance on the home.

" We'll make it, " he said. " The strong survive. "

When asked about what he has to say to some of his neighbors who

plan to leave, he said, " It's their prerogative. They may be smarter

than I am. "

In Chalmette, and Diane Lapeyrouse and their daughter,

Christy , sneaked in to take a peek at their homes, too, on

Saturday.

Diane Lapeyrouse had one goal in mind: looking for the two cats she

left behind during the storm. Like most evacuees, she didn't believe

she would be gone for long and left Ginger, a tortoiseshell cat, and

Woudie, a blue-eyed Siamese, with a large bowl of food and water.

" It's just like we left them to die, " she said.

When they arrived at their home on Carmack Drive, they found the

cottage they just bought in January had floated off its foundation.

Rescue workers who scoured the neighborhood on boats after the storm

spray painted " not entered " on the front door.

" This house is going to be demolished, " Diane Lapeyrouse said,

noting the words painted on her doorway. " They don't want us inside. "

The couple thought they heard the cats in the home.

Lapeyrouse attempted to break through the front and back doors with

a pickaxe and finally broke the side window. They couldn't go

inside, but they called for the cats. The cats never came.

Their daughter, Christy, also checked out her garage apartment

looking for her year-old pit bull. The dog wasn't there, but someone

painted " 1 dog " in the markings that indicated rescue workers looked

inside. Christy said she hoped that means her pup was rescued.

Lapeyrouse, who lost his pets, his home and the homes of

many of his relatives, said he remembers the same kind of

destruction from Hurricane Betsy.

When asked if he planned to rebuild on the same location, he

answered, " Yeah, why not? Where else are we going to go? "