Apprehensively, Thousands Go Home

Thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees filed back into this southern suburb of New Orleans on Sunday, part of the first wave of residents allowed to return to their homes permanently.

Throughout the day, a mile-long column of cars stretched along the highway entering Plaquemines Parish, as returning residents waited to be waved through a military checkpoint and wind their way toward familiar driveways and uncertain fates.

Many returned to homes that had sustained surprisingly little damage, and quickly fired up their lawnmowers and leaf-blowers to resume the soothing suburban routines that were so violently interrupted two weeks earlier.

In other areas, anxious residents stepped out of their cars and stared in disbelief at houses that were barely habitable.

“I’m hanging in there -- that’s all I’m doing, just hanging in there,” said Josephine Brooks, 64, as she surveyed the wreckage of the tiny three-bedroom home where she raised her eight children.

The hurricane ripped the roof off the back part of the house, leaving nothing but sky above the cramped kitchen and bath. And floodwaters that spilled over the banks of the Mississippi River a few hundred yards away filled the home with a foot of water, buckling floors and ruining furniture.

Local officials said that only 12,000 of the parish’s 28,000 residents were being allowed back in, mainly those who live in or near Belle Chasse, a town south of New Orleans that sustained minimal damage from the hurricane and subsequent floods.

Officials said they did not know how many residents had returned Sunday but that about 375 vehicles were filing past the checkpoint into the parish every hour through most of the day.

Other parishes have allowed residents to return temporarily to retrieve items from their homes, then reimposed evacuation orders. Neighboring Jefferson Parish, for example, readmitted about 50,000 residents Sept. 5, but gave them until Thursday to gather important belongings and leave again.

Readmitting residents carries risks. Some Plaquemines residents were moving back Sunday into homes with trees draped across their roofs and utility poles leaning ominously over their yards. But parish officials said they were eager to allow residents back in as early as possible to accelerate the region’s recovery.

“The sooner I get the population back, the sooner we will recover, because these people will take care of their own,” said parish President Benny Rousselle. “The key is not making them leave.”

Most of those who were allowed back in won’t have to leave, judging by the conditions of homes in the area. Though streets and yards were still strewn with debris, most houses appeared to have sustained only minor damage.

By midmorning, Mark and Yvette Bergeron had largely finished pulling down the plywood they had used to cover the windows of their upscale brick home.

Yvette, 40, said the only problems were a fallen fence in the backyard, a pool turned green with algae and a lingering smell from food that had rotted in the refrigerator. She said her family had ridden out the evacuation in relative comfort, spending the first week in a hotel in Houston, and the second in the family’s 40-foot RV.

Still, she said the experience was traumatic, particularly for her 9-year-old son, who begged the family not to return to New Orleans after seeing footage of looting on television. “He was afraid to come home,” she said. “Psychologically, the kids will have a lot to deal with.”

Less than 10 miles downriver, the damage was more severe. Fruit orchards and farms that had been covered with saltwater were likely to lose their trees, farmers said.

Fierce winds tore metal roofs off trailers and shacks that line the main highway through Plaquemines Parish. Some structures appeared beyond repair.

The Brooks family said they had lived in their home for 43 years.

The structure sits just a few hundred yards from the Mississippi, but they said they had never seen water spill over the bank behind them, let alone slosh into their house.

Josephine said she planned to live with her daughter until the home could be fixed. With no insurance coverage, husband George said he planned to do the job himself. By early afternoon, the 74-year-old was behind the wheel of his backhoe, clearing debris from the roads and helping a neighbor reinstall a utility pole.

The Brookses’ house sits near the bottom of the area of Plaquemines that officials allowed to be repopulated Sunday. But the parish extends another 80 miles or so south, following the contours of the Mississippi as it meanders past bogs and marshes and finally spills into the Gulf of Mexico.

The most serious damage was in the southeastern corner of the parish, where miles of marshland disappeared, and many homes were lifted off their foundations and simply floated away. Rousselle said thousands of people live in the region, working the oil fields and fishing waters of the gulf.

When the waters subside, residents will be allowed into the area only to try to recover items from their homes -- “if they can find them,” he said.

Less than 10 miles away from the Bergerons’ neighborhood, pockets of trailers and plywood shacks showed substantial damage.

The Brookses’ home was in the same place they left it, but will require extensive repairs.