Withstanding Katrina’s Fury

Six hours of wind fail to move concrete home.

While many of their neighbors are still living in FEMA trailers, the residents on Oaks Blvd. are moving back because most of the houses were built with ICFs and all were built to meet the 2000 building codes.

Ed and Ilene Catoire (pronounced Cat-wa) had built their one–story 2,490 sq. ft. house in Bay St. Louis, several miles from the coast.  Ed had been through two previous hurricanes so when Katrina threatened, the Catoire’s evacuated.

 After the wind subsided and the main roads reopened, Ed drove back to see what was left.  A local policeman told him to turn around. According to the officer there were no houses left standing in the area.  But Ed said he wanted to see for himself. 

“We literally cut our way back there with chain saws,” Catoire said.  The frame houses were just gone.  The brick houses had shifted off their foundations.  Even those built to the latest codes had been moved

The Catoire’s home, on the other hand, stood firm.  The windows and doors, however, were destroyed by winds that ranged from 175 to 225 miles per hour for six hours as the hurricane passed directly over Bay St. Louis.

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The hurricane also created a massive storm surge, a 10.5-foot wall of water that destroyed the houses the wind hadn’t yet blown away. 

“The only homes intact were the 30 in our subdivision,” says Catoire.  “All the houses were built to meet hurricane codes enacted in 2000, and many of those were built with Reward Wall Systems and other ICF systems,” he said.

The home did suffer significant water damage.  “The outside walls were sound and undamaged, but the roof had substantial damage from the nine trees that fell on the house,” Catoire said.  Despite being more than 4 miles from the coast, it was also flooded with more than 10 feet of seawater.

“We lost all of the interior of the house,” Catoire said.  The water rose above the doorframes and soaked the sheetrock.”  The exterior stucco finish was damaged by trees being blown into the house.

Built in 2000 by Art Young Lifestyle 2000, the home cost about $20,000 more to build than conventional wood construction at that time.  But according to Catoire the additional up-front cost was worth it.   He noted that frame houses with stucco exteriors had significant mold damage. But mold didn’t grow on the ICF houses.

Ed and Ilene Catoire moved back into their home on February 1, 2007, 17 months after Katrina displaced them.  Of the 30 homes in the mostly ICF subdivision, about half the families have returned. Neighboring developments are not so fortunate.  Concrete slabs or pylons mark most home sites and many residents are living in tiny FEMA trailers.