Posted on 01/28/2006 1:37:11 PM PST by Ellesu
Chalmette woman wins gutting lottery, finds missing wedding band
CHALMETTE, La. When Susan Howard's name was called for St. Bernard Parish's first house-gutting lottery, she squealed in excitement -- even though the only helpers in evidence at the time were two women ages 46 and 54.
Later, she said when she heard her name it made her feel as if she had just won the Powerball's multimillion dollar jackpot.
The house-gutting lottery was organized by officials in St. Bernard Parish, where 14-thousand commercial and 27-thousand houses, townhouses and apartment buildings flooded.
Bad weather stalled last week's start. The opening was called off because it was rainy and so few people showed up. Rain was predicted again today, but the morning's cloudy skies cleared up enough for the volunteer crew to get to work.
Howard and her husband, John -- a Louisiana National guardsman who returned from Iraq in September -- had already removed the refrigerator from their two-story home. But wallboard had to be pulled out as well as water-logged furniture, pink insulation and other debris that cluttered the floor underneath a three-inch-thick layer of black oily muck. Their two-story home had water into the second-floor.
Parish Councilman Craig Taffaro Junior showed up with a T-V crew and stayed long after it left. While prying wallboard from a front room, he found a small, angel statuette with a gold ring on it.
Susan Howard exclaimed "You found it!" when he showed her the ring. It was her diamond wedding ring, still where she left it -- on the statuette's arm -- but in another area of the house. A while later, another worker found the missing half of a pair of gold earrings.
The couple, married 18 years, have been living in Houston and coming home on weekends to salvage whatever they could. Susan Howard says her husband had been looking for the ring with a metal detector but couldn't find it.
By noon, a pile of debris about 20-feet long, 10-feet wide and between two- and five-feet high spilled from the Howards' sidewalk into the street.
Love this story!
Nice story. After five months of disaster, this is a bright light toward recovery for this family. Thanks for posting.
--Happy endings are nice. :)
What a nice story. Thank you for posting it.
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