My 15 seconds of fame

[Frank P]

I had an article in the sunherald newspaper today on my former house..

see link

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/ ... 088322.htm

Also today I was interviewed by the Associated Press, who is going to do an article on the one year anniversity of Katrina... I guess they interviewed me and took pictures of my home project because I am the first to be building back on the beach in Biloxi... so I guess I might get another 15 second of fame next month...

good thing I'm not in the Federal Witness Protection Program.... then again....

[Audrey2Katrina]

Glad to see you just might get THIRTY minutes of fame there, Harry...!!!

oooopps.... I mean Well done, Frank!

A2K

[Lindaloo]

That is excellent Frank.

[Ixolib]

Very - VERY - cool, Frank!! Good on 'ya... I know we can depend on you to portray our beloved Biloxi in the right light!! You da man!!

[Frank P]

thanks gang.... trying to keep a positive spin on it all...

tell you this ..... its NOT CHEAP ... but its still HOME....

still hoping for some grant money....

[Rocketman]

thanks gang.... trying to keep a positive spin on it all...

tell you this ..... its NOT CHEAP ... but its still HOME....

still hoping for some grant money....

Best of luck in your rebuilding, Frank. I've been by your place a thousand times, I'm sure. I grew up on St. Peter 1/2 north of 90. My mother still lives there.

[Ixolib]

thanks gang.... trying to keep a positive spin on it all...

tell you this ..... its NOT CHEAP ... but its still HOME....

still hoping for some grant money....

Best of luck in your rebuilding, Frank. I've been by your place a thousand times, I'm sure. I grew up on St. Peter 1/2 north of 90. My mother still lives there.

St. Peter!! That's "one" of my old stomping grounds... Got friends on Jeff Davis and almost bought a house on Acacia some time back. My mom used to be the on-call RN at Seashore Manor. Used to do a lot of wade fishing at the foot of St. Peter and fished the oyster reefs off the beach there many times by boat. Ahhhhhh... The memories!!

[Rocketman]

thanks gang.... trying to keep a positive spin on it all...

tell you this ..... its NOT CHEAP ... but its still HOME....

still hoping for some grant money....

Best of luck in your rebuilding, Frank. I've been by your place a thousand times, I'm sure. I grew up on St. Peter 1/2 north of 90. My mother still lives there.

St. Peter!! That's "one" of my old stomping grounds... Got friends on Jeff Davis and almost bought a house on Acacia some time back. My mom used to be the on-call RN at Seashore Manor. Used to do a lot of wade fishing at the foot of St. Peter and fished the oyster reefs off the beach there many times by boat. Ahhhhhh... The memories!!

That's 1/2 "block" north of 90...Mom's place is now the 2nd house on the left as you turn off 90 onto St. Peter. My mother, sister and her husband actually stayed there against everyone's pleas to leave. There are few properties that close to the beach still intact. The new condos on the corner of 90 and St. Peter saved them, I'm sure. I used to curse the condos because they blocked our iew of the beach, but not anymore (the cursing that is).

We moved there in 1974. I was a Daily Herald paperboy then, and my routes went all the way from the Seashore Manor (the campground) to White Ave to Irish Hill. All of those beatiful homes on the beachfront are mostly gone as you know. I'd been in every one of them, collecting for my newpapers.

I've caught many a speck right out front there myself. If that was you I hit with a Sidewinder at daybreak that summer morning, I apologize,

[Frank P]

Rocketman, thanks.. and I know that neighborhood VERY WELL... my brother used to live on Collins street, which a couple of block west of you... I lived on Acacia street for about a year early in my marriage....

[Rocketman]

Rocketman, thanks.. and I know that neighborhood VERY WELL... my brother used to live on Collins street, which a couple of block west of you... I lived on Acacia street for about a year early in my marriage....

Frank I know this is taking your original thread way off topic, but did you or your brother have a band way back in the 70s that was your last name?

[Frank P]

Rocketman, thanks.. and I know that neighborhood VERY WELL... my brother used to live on Collins street, which a couple of block west of you... I lived on Acacia street for about a year early in my marriage....

Frank I know this is taking your original thread way off topic, but did you or your brother have a band way back in the 70s that was your last name?

Yep, and now you know the rest of the story...... but that was soooo long ago...

[GalvestonDuck]

Way cool, Frank! I was glad to see those famous blue storm shutters mentioned. They really were awesome!

The Pellegrinos are willing to rebuild beachfront and take every precaution they can never to lose their home again.

Way to show those "People shouldn't build their homes on the coast, on barrier islands, or in hurricane-prone areas" a thing or two about the resiliency of those of us who live here!

[Frank P]

Thanks GalvestonDuck, and if you live on or near the beach you know exactly where I'm coming from... unfortunately I would wager to bet that less than 25% of the people along the MS coast will rebuild on the beach, at least the pre Katrina owners... .... I hope I'm wrong on this one however... in my neighborhood its only 4 of 13 destroyed homes planning to rebuild .. and our land is 17-18 feet above sea level

not much progress to report as last week was basically a wash out for the home project and we had difficulties getting supplies delivered.. .... goal this week is to have the sills and flooring completed by weeks end... pending weather of course....

[MSRobi911]

Frank, I so feel what you are going through in a way. My house was totally gone here in Pascagoula and we lived in our little trailer for 9 months. Not one of our neighbors either on Beach Blvd in front of us or on Washington around where I live are planning on rebuilding. We don't know what we are going to do, we are just going to wait and see what happens in the wash over the next couple of years. Out of twelve houses in the immediate area, no one is planning on rebuilding and one person has already sold their lot to Bluefrog's Mom. There are some people further down East on Washington that had started to build right before the storm and are finishing their homes and there are a few that have built from what was left of there's, but most were totally destroyed or unsalvageable so were bulldozed down. There is one street back behind Washington, Chickasaw I think is the name, not one house is left on the entire street where their were older "navy houses" and they are all gone....it looks so strange when you drive down that street or just ride by and look to see it empty.

Even this long after, I still haven't had the heart to ride to Biloxi/Gulfport area....after living in my heart was already broken and I just don't want to see that all of my memories of my teenage years are gone, even though I know they are, I just haven't had the heart to go see in person.

Mary

[Frank P]

Frank, I so feel what you are going through in a way. My house was totally gone here in Pascagoula and we lived in our little trailer for 9 months. Not one of our neighbors either on Beach Blvd in front of us or on Washington around where I live are planning on rebuilding. We don't know what we are going to do, we are just going to wait and see what happens in the wash over the next couple of years. Out of twelve houses in the immediate area, no one is planning on rebuilding and one person has already sold their lot to Bluefrog's Mom. There are some people further down East on Washington that had started to build right before the storm and are finishing their homes and there are a few that have built from what was left of there's, but most were totally destroyed or unsalvageable so were bulldozed down. There is one street back behind Washington, Chickasaw I think is the name, not one house is left on the entire street where their were older "navy houses" and they are all gone....it looks so strange when you drive down that street or just ride by and look to see it empty.

Even this long after, I still haven't had the heart to ride to Biloxi/Gulfport area....after living in my heart was already broken and I just don't want to see that all of my memories of my teenage years are gone, even though I know they are, I just haven't had the heart to go see in person.

Mary

Mary I feel your pain... but seeing might help the grieving process... it might do you good to come on over and visit ... I thought that the article of my home in the paper was like my house's obituary... kinda gave it some closure... its buried and gone and we're going up with a new one... so it was a psychological shot in the arm sorta...

Having the mall open also helps us somewhat... we go quite often just to escape the little shoe box we live in... its hard, and its going to take a long LONG time, but at least we've started building, and I think eventually you'll see more people building again, but our coast will NEVER be the same.... hopefully good will come from it all... I just want to be in my house again.... and its going to be on the beach too....

[Audrey2Katrina]

kinda gave it some closure...

I have to agree with you on that one, Frank. It took me nearly 5 months to drive down into New Orleans, into the Holy Cross neighborhood where I came up. I knew it had been flooded--not once (by Katrina) but twice (again by Rita); and so many treasured memories were from that now blighted neighborhood. Actually with Betsy it had been flooded three times. I well recall the waters of Betsy--of course it was all a big adventure back then. I drove past St. Maurice Church, which dated back to 1854, and saw its erstwhile tall steeple completely missing, (blown off), I saw the debris, the empty houses (yes completely deserted area five months after the storm) went to my old home, on Dauphine Street, and shook my head with incredulity, staring at all the places whereat I'd had so many good times as a child, teen, and youth: the abertoire, the sandlot, the playground, the levee, the tracks and on and on. Across the street from my old home, I noted the entire roof of my very first friend's home (Grundy--yeah weird name, but I recall him well) had been blown completely off--a gaping ugly maw where the roof should have met the blown-off walls of the house; and one entire facade of the house ripped open like a disemboweled cadaver. (There was lots of wind damage in this area--it was right on the St. Bernard border and closer to the eye wall as it passed just to the east).

I had to see the old estate one more time; because I knew that it would soon enough disappear altogether--the entire neighborhood would. Even Holy Cross, which gives the area its name, and was the school all my family went to, has decided that after being there for more than 130 years--it was going to abandon it's campus and relocate--probably out to Jefferson Parish somewhere. It did my heart good to see that, at least for the time being, although bent and battered, the pine tree my dad and I had planted in the front of the old homestead some 40 odd years ago, was still standing--sans many branches and leaning slightly--but standing. I picked up a fallen branch with a cone still clinging on it to bring back with me. I even took one of the fallen shingles from the roof with me (teachers are incurable packrats). But after I finally returned back to my new Metairie home, I felt I could close the pages on that book. It bothered me for endless nights before I finally got up the gumption to go out there; but I'm glad I did it. I'm glad I saw, for one last time, as depressing as it might have been, the place I once called "home", before it vanished into the long gone winds and waters of Katrina lore.

A2K

[Strings]

Frank, that's great that you're back at it, holding down the coastline for all those inland types who don't realize how tied they are to the watery 2/3rds of the planet.

Anyway, tell us more about these pillars/pilings you'll be perched on, what they're made of, how they're set/driven into the ground, etc.

I guess everything at ground level (garage, stairs, etc.) has to be constructed to "breakaway" in a storm surge?

[Frank P]

Frank, that's great that you're back at it, holding down the coastline for all those inland types who don't realize how tied they are to the watery 2/3rds of the planet.

Anyway, tell us more about these pillars/pilings you'll be perched on, what they're made of, how they're set/driven into the ground, etc.

I guess everything at ground level (garage, stairs, etc.) has to be constructed to "breakaway" in a storm surge?

thanks Strings... actually everything at ground level can be regular construction because my ground level is above the city flood zone, and meets the FEMA advisory flood zone... still, it will be breakaway walls, or walls made up of large single pane windows that would wash out easily...

Pilings are 12 x 12 x 20 feet treated yellow pine (.80 cca), we bored them about 11 feet into the ground, drilled some rebar in them about 4 feet from the bottom of the hole, added a foot of pea gravel at the bottom for drainage, treated the soil for termites, then poured 1.5 yards of concrete in each hole... on average each piling is about 8-10 feet below grade.... this week we are going to dig another small footing around each piling, an 8 inch trench between all pilings, and connect all the exterior pilings with rebar and pour another 40 yards for the ground level slab and part of the driveway...... I'll post some pixs on the picture page...