[StBernard] Rebuilding St. Bernard: A Series About Residents Returning Home

[Westley Annis]

Something nice is happening on Pirate Drive, where Livingston Avenue
intersects and ends at the pasture in the Buccaneer Villa South subdivision
in Chalmette.
 
Four houses in a row are being rebuilt by owners on Pirate who intend to
move back in - an unusual sight in a formerly quiet, nice-looking
neighborhood just starting to recover after being hit by about 11 feet of
flood water during Katrina.
 
Mark and Krystal Buras is converting what was once a two-story brick home
that suffered severe damage to one side, into a two-story green vinyl home
that is nearing completion. '' A trailer stands outside the home he is
rebuilding and could be back in within a month.
 
Mark Buras, who runs a vinyl siding and construction business, said, "I've
been living in St. Bernard Parish my whole life. I had to give it another
chance.''
 
He grew up in Violet but years ago bought the two-story brick at Pirate and
Livingston, putting about $70,000 into it, he said.
 
Once it was damaged in Katrina he and his wife decided "we'd give it a
couple of years'' to see if St. Bernard will come back, Buras said.
 
If the parish can make it through this hurricane season, Buras said, he
feels "25 percent more people will come back'' in the fall. 
 
"We've got three kids. I can't just leave'' and give his children a chance
to know St. Bernard, he said.
 
Next to him, Terri Eschmann is helping her mother rebuild the one-story
brick home Eschmann lived in for years in the 2600 block of Pirate before
she moved to Metairie.
Her mother, Audrey Wild, was concerned about whether neighbors would come
back but decided to return after hearing that others, including Buras, were
rebuilding on both sides of her, Eschmann said of her mother.
 
"This is a great neighborhood,'' Eschmann said of Buccaneer Villa South.
 
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