[StBernard] Residents blast lack of key home advice

[Westley Annis]

Recovery forum held in St. Bernard
Residents blast lack of key home advice 
Friday, February 24, 2006
By Karen Turni Bazile
St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau 

Six months after Hurricane Katrina flooded their homes, St. Bernard Parish
residents said they want someone to tell them what they should do about
their damaged houses. 

 
Unveiled this week, a proposal by the St. Bernard Citizens Recovery
Committee does not answer that question, and committee members say they're
waiting on the federal government to release flood elevation advisories
before making such recommendations. That information is due in about a
month. 

In the absence of concrete suggestions, the committee told the public at
meetings Monday and Tuesday that it should consider moving south of Judge
Perez Drive, where the land is higher. 

That did little to appease many residents who attended a public hearing on
the committee's proposal Thursday, some of whom already are rebuilding their
flooded homes on the north side of Judge Perez. 

Though the entire parish suffered devastating flooding, homes on the north
side of Judge Perez, closest to Lake Borgne, generally received 1 to 2 feet
more than those on the south side. Officials in the parish Department of
Planning and Community Development said they have received numerous
questions from residents who now are confused about whether they can rebuild
on the north side. 

"I can't stop anyone from rebuilding," said Mike Hunnicutt, community
development director. Hunnicutt says about 12,000 people are living in the
parish, based on the electrical permits his office has issued. 

The committee, which has been working since November, recommended that the
parish use its Home Mortgage Authority as a conduit to dispense federal
grants to buy out destroyed homes or provide low-interest mortgages for
repairs and new house construction. The committee also suggested that the
parish seek financing to buy out properties and create a nonresidential
buffer near the parish's two oil refineries, which are now surrounded by
residential neighborhoods. More than 1,600 homes in Chalmette were affected
by an oil spill from the Murphy Oil refinery after Hurricane Katrina. 

But while the committee's proposal outlines a $2 billion plan to repair
infrastructure, improve coastal protection and foster economic development,
it was the suggestion that residents should perhaps seek higher ground that
has drawn the most debate. 

"You are causing problems for the residents," Judy Giglio, a Realtor who has
lived for 13 years on Seal Drive in Carolyn Park north of Judge Perez and
already is rebuilding her home, said Thursday during the public hearing in
Chalmette 

"Just making these recommendations, you have crippled these people," said
Chris Holmes, a law clerk who also has spent money renovating his home on
Despaux Drive in Chalmette, an area north of Judge Perez affected by the
Murphy Oil spill. 

The committee's plan includes a wish list of projects to reshape the parish,
from a long-proposed four-lane highway along the 40-Arpent Canal to a senior
citizens housing complex near a new hospital and medical office. 

The Parish Council must ratify the plan by March 7 so a final report can be
sent to the Louisiana Recovery Authority later in March. The council is
likely to amend the plan. 

The committee will conduct another public hearing Saturday at 9 a.m. in the
large brown and white tent behind the government complex at 8201 W. Judge
Perez Drive in Chalmette. 

. . . . . . . 


Staff writer Karen Turni Bazile can be reached at kturni at timespicayune.com
or (504) 352-2539.