Bay resident Chris Lagarde found the house in Magnolia Branch Marsh after investigating a bit of yellow and white painted wood he has noticed poking out of the swamp for two years. He said he never dreamed there might be a house under it.
Lagarde, who works for U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor, organized a field trip of college volunteers to begin pulling the debris out. They used planks to make their way about 400 yards to the house, which was surprisingly somewhat still intact.
The volunteers began dismantling the one-story wood house Tuesday. The debris piles are being placed in dumpsters, which will be emptied by the city, he said. Metal found in the home is being recycled…
The home is believed to belong to Ed and Sandy Conrad, who lived on Second Street during the hurricane, but relocated to Kentucky. Calls to the Conrads were unanswered. The volunteers are trying to salvage some of the family’s personal belongings, Lagarde said.
David Weir with Mission on the Bay said volunteers found a surprise in the dishwasher. “It still had the dishes in there,” he said. “They’re all intact. Dirty, but intact.”
“Some five years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, we are reminded that there are still those who can’t enjoy the comforts of permanent housing and are proud that we were able to work with Bay-Waveland Habitat for Humanity to donate a Lowe’s Katrina Cottage and a grant for this new home,” said district manager Rick Cook.
What a heart-drenching, tear-jerking, wonderful story !
Interesting to note, Whitmergate, that both the house in the marsh and the house Lowe’s replaced were located in Hancock County – the area of Mississippi that saw more flooding as result of push back of water from Louisiana (according to a van Heerden report I ran across last week).
Given JP’s neglect of flood control responsibility, the “bright lights” in Parish government obviously thought the “theory of relativity” had something to do with employment of relatives!
Over the years, I’ve heard people talk about the “relativity” of various flood control projects, particularly when I lived in the Delta. In that regard, the reader comments on the Sun Herald were interesting as they indicate the zillions of dollars spent on post-Katrina cleanup didn’t get the job done. Makes me wonder what else is hidden in the marshes here and in Louisiana – and how much less expensive it would be to restore the wetlands if we first cleaned the marshes!
i went with a group of other high school kids to work with Chris and Mission on the Bay, and we also worked with this house. When we were done we built a bottle tree to remember the family who used to live there. it was such a great experience and it was really cool to see this article.