In New Orleans, one battered community coming back, but different

The population of Orleans Parish has increased by 100,000 since last fall.

from the August 29, 2007 edition

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Several massive commercial and public projects are expected to get under way, too, including a $60 million residential conversion of the downtown American Bank Building and a $200 million renovation at Jackson Barracks military base in the Lower Ninth Ward.

"We're getting there," says Chuck Schmalz, who rode the storm out on Lake Catherine.

The city's most distant outpost on the old Chef Highway – Hwy 90 – Lake Catherine is a salty hideaway for crabbers and retired lawyers known mostly for its curvy road and frequent wrecks. Only 17 of more than 500 buildings still stood after a surge thick with loosened railroad ties slammed across the island, and then surged back in the ricochet wave that loosened the levees around New Orleans.

Today, debris from the storm is still in the lake. Only 40 out of 200 regular island association members now come to meetings, many of whom drive in from off island.

But eight houses are being built, all about 20 feet in the air, and nearly all of new modular construction. This week, buyers were nosing around the island. New businesses – a busy bar, an icehouse, and a seafood dealer – are getting off the ground. A new project is underway to clear the lake of sunken boats. "Everything that was old is gone," says islander Ronny Kreger.

In some ways, the island is better prepared than ever, says Wayne Gagliano, one of three core members of the Fort Pike Volunteer Fire Department, the only volunteer squad in the city. The department will regift most of the eight firetrucks donated after the storm, but it will keep a ladder from New York because it's ideal for fighting fires in an elevated village.

"We'll be stronger and better for the storm," says Mr. Gagliano.

The storm tore Louis Neal's house right off its pilings. In a way, he says, Katrina helped him make a decision that he couldn't make by himself: He chose to move his family off the island so his three children could have access to a better education and a better job than being a crab fishermen at a time when a gallon of diesel costs $2.70.

"I'm never coming back," he says.

Boat builder Chuck Deckelmann says he can only dream of buying one of the new lofty modulars down-island. His camp floated away, and the landowner has stopped leasing plots since the storm. But a friend is lending him a space to put a trailer.

"A lot of people have moved on, but I'm coming back to where I've been raised my whole life," he says.

Mary Bryan began building a massive camp on Lake Catherine the summer before Katrina. Two years later, the family is finally planning a housewarming party.

"It's going to be bigger and better, and it's going to be perfect," she says.

[Editor's note: The original sub-headline misstated the number of people who returned to Lake Catherine since the storm.]

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Rich Clabaugh