Rick Fayard knows he's a lucky man.
He's living in a travel trailer provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency parked at the McLeod State Park campground.
As Hancock County's Emergency Medical Services director, housing for Fayard was a priority for FEMA, and he received a trailer a week ago.
But lucky is a relative term.
Fayard, 47, and his wife, Denise, lost their 1,650-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath Waveland home they had just remodeled a month before Hurricane Katrina struck. He was just about to take care of the finishing touches, including putting new doorknobs on the closets.
Now, they are adjusting to life in a 32-foot recreational vehicle.
"It's the camper I always wanted," Fayard said. "It's a beautiful little place to take on a holiday, but it isn't a holiday and I'm not going home this weekend."
McLeod State Park has become a minitown, filled with campers and construction trailers that have been converted to living quarters.
They are humble accommodations, but receiving the trailer made him luckier than most still waiting for FEMA temporary housing, Fayard said.
"We're off the ground," he said. "That's better than most, so I'm not complaining."
Fayard saw worse on the day Hurricane Katrina struck, when the Hancock County Emergency Operations Center started taking on water. At one point, he said, the water got so high, EOC members wrote numbers on their arms and nailed a list linking names with the numbers to the ceiling in the event their bodies had to be identified.
When the water receded, Fayard commandeered a school bus to pick up people fleeing their flooded neighborhoods.
Fayard said he understands why FEMA has put emergency personnel first in line for temporary housing so they can stay in their communities and continue recovery efforts.
In the weeks after the hurricane, Fayard slept on a cot at the Hancock County Emergency Operations Center while his wife stayed with relatives.
Fayard hadn't returned to see his home until about a week ago.
"I was dealing with so much and I needed to stay focused," he said. "I didn't want to think about the personal losses I suffered. It would have been too much."
On Sunday, Fayard looked at his gutted home across the street from Waveland Elementary School and said he was waiting to see whether he could rebuild on the same site.
But even rebuilding comes with its own obstacles.
Fayard didn't live in a flood plain, so he didn't have flood insurance. His homeowners insurance policy won't cover the damage to the house.
He hopes the insurance settlement he receives for his personal belongings will pay off the debt on the destroyed house.
With his high credit score, the Small Business Administration told Fayard that he doesn't qualify for a low-interest loan. He must take out another 30-year mortgage to try and rebuild his home.
"I had a comfortable, modest life," Fayard said. "Now, I am going to be in debt for the rest of my life, but this was my home and it will be again."
Distributed by the Associated Press
