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

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Wed Aug 2 01:33:11 EDT 2006


Andrew Bruno said he could have been back in his home in the 2000 block of
Pelitere Drive by last Thanksgiving if there had been natural gas available
for the area. Eric Eliers said he and his wife, Carol, moved back in on
Christmas Eve in the 2300 block of Pelitere.

Allen and Elyce Ricouard, who have been on Pelitere for 13 years, are about
ready to move back across the street from Eilers and Ronald Beard, who
bought a house on the street after his Arabi home was destroyed in the storm
said "Thanksgiving should be the bottom line'' for his family to move in.

And it's the same story up and down Pelitere from East St. Bernard Highway
to East Judge Perez Drive in Chalmette.

That section of Pelitere had only about three feet of water and is one the
most far along in recovery of any street in St. Bernard Parish.

"Just about everybody, probably 80 percent'' of the homes either have
residents or soon will, said Bruno, who has lived on the street about 25
years and moved back in his home in January. His daughter, Tiffani Glapion,
a parish teacher, is one of the residents who are getting back in, he said.

Eilers, who moved to Pelitere just months before Hurricane Katrina, said he
didn't like the idea of going to another parish. "I was living in
Ponchatoula and I hated it,'' Eilers said and his daughter wanted to come
back to St. Bernard and go to the Unified School, he said. "I just bowed up
and got it down,'' he said of moving back.

Eilers grew up in Carolyn Park and experienced Hurricane Betsy. "If my mom
and dad could come back (from a hurricane) why couldn't I,'' he said.

Allen Ricouard said he didn't want to move to St. Tammany Parish and see
himself stuck in traffic on the twin spans over Lake Pontchartrain on
Interstate 10.
He said he believes that "after the first of the year you will see more
activity'' in St. Bernard.

A native of the 9th Ward in New Orleans, Beard said that after his home was
destroyed on Esteban Street in Arabi he didn't think of leaving the parish.
"I love St. Bernard. I wouldn't have it any other way.''

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