>>>This story is so true; where I work, many of our new staff including some management came from St. Bernard parish. And just like the church parish mentioned in this story my home parish in Abita Springs has grown tremendously, in part, because of our new St. Bernard neighbors.
Note: this is the first in what probably will be a few stories and reflections as all of us from this part of Louisiana prepare for the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina; something we will never forget!
Longtime St. Bernard residents find homes, and happiness, in St. Tammany
Published: Monday, August 16, 2010, 5:00 AM Updated: Monday, August 16, 2010, 9:14 AM
Christine Harvey, The Times-Picayune
Mark Benfatti jumped from his chair in the dining room at N'Tini's in Mandeville and shook hands with a man he hadn't seen in five years. The visitor used to be a regular at Arabi Food Store, where Benfatti once worked, but he moved to Alexandria after Hurricane Katrina devastated St. Bernard Parish and destroyed his home.
Their restaurant, which opened a few month before Hurricane Katrina hit, became a gathering place for displaced St Bernard residents.
It's a scene that occurs almost daily at the restaurant that Benfatti opened in 2007 -- three years after starting the first N'Tini's in Chalmette. On this particular day, the visitor had come to the restaurant with his wife, who was there to meet several other women from Chalmette High School to plan their 40th reunion.
Share "We've got dollar martinis from 11 to 3," Benfatti told one of the women entering the banquet room, before noting that he would make sure to keep her safe. "I'll get you home!"
It's like St. Bernard, only someplace else.
Thousands who were chased out of St. Bernard Parish by Hurricane Katrina landed on the north shore, many intending to go back in a year or two when things got back to normal. When normal failed to appear on the horizon, though, many who had set down temporary roots in places like Covington, Abita Springs and Slidell and were charmed by the area's beauty and convenience decided to stay.
Nearly five years later, those people have come to call St. Tammany Parish home, in many cases because entire extended families moved together.
Heart and home
Archbishop Gregory Aymond said he runs into people from St. Bernard whenever he visits the north shore these days and has found that they appear comfortable and happy in their new surroundings. He described the newcomers as resilient and faith-filled, and believes that the locals have come to appreciate their new neighbors.
"Every time I go to St. Tammany, I have a number of people who I knew from St. Bernard and others who I didn't know who always identify themselves in a very proud way," he said. "Their point to me has been, 'We're from St. Bernard, we're from Chalmette, we've found a new home.' They seem to be very comfortable there and have been received with open arms."
While it's true that home is where the heart is, their hearts will never forget St. Bernard Parish and what it meant to them.
Ellia Lucia, The Times-PicayuneElementary school teacher Maleen Dickinson, her husband and their three children are former St. Bernard Parish residents who now live near Covington. One of the ways Dickinson says she has assimilated is by taking part in her 12-year-old daughter Sadie's activities, like soccer practice at Pelican Park.
Benfatti, for one, has worked hard to make sure people keep St. Bernard in their memories, organizing a reunion Aug. 7 for the fourth year in a row to help current and former residents reconnect. About 800 people attended this year's Castaway Dance at the Castine Center in Pelican Park near Mandeville.
It's hard to know just how many people made the move from St. Bernard to St. Tammany after the storm.
The U.S. Postal Service, the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center and St. Tammany's parish government, school system and voter registrar all were unable to quantify the migration. When questioned last week, representatives with those agencies could not provide data on movement from one parish to the other at the five-year mark, saying no one appears to have done a study to make such a determination.
A report released by the regional Community Data Center in 2007 estimated that St. Bernard lost 75 percent of its population -- about 50,000 people -- in the first year after Katrina. Of those who left, the report said, about a third -- 16,000 to 17,000 -- relocated to St. Tammany Parish. It remains unclear how many of those have remained on the north shore since then and how many returned to St. Bernard.
'It didn't take long to feel like home'
Maleen Dickinson, who had lived her entire life in St. Bernard, said she was "gung ho" about moving back and even considered living in a trailer while she and her husband, George, rebuilt their family's Corinne Estates home in Chalmette. She changed her mind once people started saying it would take five or 10 years for the parish to recover, because the couple had three children in school and needed to provide a more stable life for them.
Ellia Lucia, The Times-PicayuneMark Benfatti, who with his wife Donna Benfatti owns and operates N'tini's restaurant in Mandeville, is a St. Bernard native. Benfatti visits with a group of former St. Bernard Parish residents who are planning a Chalmette High School Class of 1961 reunion.
The family moved by Christmas Eve to Versailles Estates near Covington, where it seems like former St. Bernard residents occupy every third house, Dickinson said. While her two sons since have graduated from high school, her daughter, Sadie, is a seventh-grader at Fontainebleau Junior High School and thriving in her new environment, especially with her participation in the Mandeville Soccer Club.
"Once we got situated here, we didn't want to uproot them again," Dickinson said, noting that the things she missed about St. Bernard no longer existed. "It didn't take long to feel like home. Thanks to the kids, we had to start getting involved."
Dickinson's return to teaching after the storm also helped solidify her place in the community. A former teacher at Joseph J. Davies Elementary School in Meraux, she was named teacher of the year by her new colleagues at Magnolia Trace Elementary for the 2009-10 school year.
Like Dickinson, Dana Sherlock focused on family when deciding to move to Slidell after the storm. Her sister-in-law already lived in Slidell and sent her child to Slidell High School, so Sherlock thought she would do the same to bring some semblance of normalcy to her son's life.
She, too, had thought about moving back -- to some property she and her husband, Nickolas, owned in Plaquemines Parish -- but, in the end, she just couldn't. A lot of the buildings were gone, but, perhaps more importantly, a lot of her friends were gone, too.
Meanwhile, a new Catholic church parish, Most Holy Trinity north of Mandeville, proved to be a good fit for many of the transplants.
The church opened in June 2006, 10 months after the storm and around the time most people from St. Bernard were starting to feel somewhat settled on the north shore. The Rev. Rodney Bourg said about half of his 700 parishioners joined the new church after being displaced by the hurricane.
Because the church was new, parishioners who were new to St. Tammany could incorporate their ministries and traditions at Most Holy Trinity without stepping on anyone else's toes, Bourg said. He noted that he grew up in Chalmette, which also helped smooth the transition for many of the newcomers.
A taste of home
At least it hasn't been as hard to replace the unique flavor that is St. Bernard. Several of the parish's popular restaurant and shop owners made the move to the north shore too, so places like Nonna Randazzo's Italian Bakery, Johnny & Joyce's seafood restaurant and Pontchartrain Po'Boys have flourished.
Scott Threlkeld, The Times-Picayune'People would come in and cry,' Phillip DiCristina said of the restaurant he runs with his wife Josie. 'They'd say, It's so good to see you. It feels like home again.'
But it was one St. Bernard family that got the ball rolling in St. Tammany nearly eight months before Katrina hit, opening DiCristina's on North Columbia Street in Covington. And it was this restaurant that served as the meeting place for many St. Bernard residents in the months immediately after the storm.
Phillip and Josie DiCristina had worked at Rocky & Carlo's in Chalmette -- Josie's uncle is Carlo Gio -- for more than 40 years when they decided to open DiCristina's with their daughter and son-in-law, Maria and Frank Pyburn. Many St. Bernard residents recognized familiar items such as the baked macaroni and stuffed bell peppers on the menu.
Business boomed after Katrina when St. Bernard residents realized DiCristina's offered a taste of home. And the restaurant became a place where people could run into a roomful of friends just by walking in the door.
"People would come in and cry," Phillip DiCristina said, noting that the reunions haven't stopped five years later. "They'd say, 'It's so good to see you. It feels like home again.'"
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