[StBernard] Free program guts 1,000th home

[Westley Annis]

Free program guts 1,000th home
Parish hails efforts of visiting volunteers 
Monday, April 10, 2006
By Karen Turni Bazile
St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau 
James and Sherri Houin, now living in Ponchatoula, were surprised to learn
their Meraux home represented a milestone for a unique St. Bernard program
that offers free removal of storm debris from residents' houses. 

 
On Friday, as a group of volunteers gutted the Judy Drive house on a hot
afternoon, St. Bernard Parish officials showed up bearing Popsicles to mark
the fact that the house is the 1,000th home gutted in the program. 

The program uses volunteers who have come from all over the country to help
residents in a parish that saw almost every home flooded by Hurricane
Katrina's storm surge. 

"It's very heartwarming to have people who have no real connection to our
community give up their time and efforts to help us," Councilman Craig
Taffaro said. 

The Parish Council called a recess in its meeting Friday to mark the
occasion with a party for the current volunteers, who were from the National
Relief Network, AmeriCorps and Habitat for Humanity. Other groups, including
Samaritan's Purse and the Campus Crusade for Christ, also have helped. 


FEMA to keep camp open 

Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez and Director of Recovery David
Dysart also announced Friday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency
has reversed its decision to close the Chalmette base camp, Camp Premier,
which has housed and fed as many as 1,500 volunteers at a time since
January. Rodriguez said the camp will remain open at least until June 1. 

"This is directly because of volunteers' efforts," Dysart told the group of
mostly young volunteers, some of whom rode a bus 22 hours from Michigan to
help in St. Bernard. 

Taffaro said the volunteer program that Dysart is coordinating is an
important part of the parish's recovery. 

"It provides a means to address the first step of the recovery process,
which is getting rid of all the debris inside and outside the homes,"
Taffaro said. 

The parish also is hoping the value of the gutting -- expected to be in the
millions of dollars -- could be used to offset any 10 percent match the
parish would owe for debris pickup, Taffaro said. FEMA officials have denied
that request, but the parish is appealing. 

Either way, the parish is determined to keep the volunteer gutting program
going as long as residents continue to register to have their homes cleaned
and as long as volunteers are in ready supply. 

The council recently authorized Dysart to spend up to $100,000 to prepare
its own volunteer base camp if FEMA closes Camp Premier. 


Archdiocese offers space 

Taffaro said the Archdiocese of New Orleans has given the parish permission
to house volunteers at Hannan Manor in Meraux if needed. The independent
living center for the elderly is unoccupied and has undamaged units on its
second through fifth floors. 

Taffaro said he was glad to see the program reach the 1,000th-home
milestone, even though it took longer to get to that point than officials
thought when Dysart envisioned the program months ago. 

"It's been such a battle to get the approval and the support to do it,"
Taffaro said. 

Council Vice Chairman Joey DiFatta agreed. 

"Just the idea of people coming to St. Bernard is overwhelming," DiFatta
said. "It shows the spirit of America is still alive and that the people are
still willing to give and give to the folks who have gone through this
disaster." 

Rodriguez said volunteers have streamed into St. Bernard in numbers as high
as 2,500 a week, many of them college students on spring break, and Taffaro
said he thinks the program has seen more than 15,000 since its inception in
early January. 

More than 5,000 parish residents have registered for the free
debris-clearing program. Residents can still register for the program on the
second floor of the parish government building at 8201 W. Judge Perez Drive
in Chalmette or at www.sbpg.net, the parish Web site. 

. . . . . . . 


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