St. Tammany News

Leanne Hebert is already taking beer orders.

Although Hebert and her fianc/, Chad Modica, are several months away from moving into a round house on Lakeview Drive in Slidell, neighbors are already submitting their hurricane party supply lists, some as tall as a storm surge.

Leanne Hebert and Chad Modica are building a round house on Lakeview Drive in Slidell. The home, able to withstand winds of 150 mph, is the first one to be built on the lakeside of the road. The couple joke that instead of Lakeview's common name of "Rat's Nest Road," locals will call it "Round House Road." (Staff Photo by Matthew Penix)

The house, capable of sustaining 150-mph hurricane winds, is drawing attention.

"Everyone says they'll be staying here when the next one hits," said Hebert, glancing up at the 49-foot raised house behind her. "I'm constantly taking orders for Budweiser."

Hoping to inspire others to rebuild, Modica is one of the first to rebuild on the Lake Pontchartrain side of Lakeview Drive, better known as "Rat's Nest Road," where entire homes were reduced to concrete slabs. Many argue it's the most ravaged street in St. Tammany Parish.

Towering nearly 50 feet off the ground and adorned with 500-pound walls, American flags flutter in the wind above an overhanging back deck with a tiki bar. The blue polygon-shaped home has beckoned drivers to stop, hang out the window and point.

It has no single, flat section wider than 8 feet, minimizing large areas where wind can build and create pressure that would easily collapse a conventional, square or rectangular home. And the circular design insures that any force exerted against one side of the structure is distributed out the opposing side, similar to the spokes of a wheel.

Modica was sold.

After returning three days after Hurricane Katrina destroyed south Slidell to find nothing left but splintered pilings and their house's red siding wrapped around a pole three blocks away, Modica and Hebert weren't sure what to do.

They cried. They hugged each other. Then they went numb.

But memories soon rushed back, forcing a tiny smile to appear. Modica thought about the time when Hebert hooked her first fish - a trout that hooked her to the sport - at the end of their recently built 500-foot pier. He remembers her subsequent infatuation and how scared he was each time he awoke in the middle of the night to find Hebert not in bed. But every time, he'd rush outside in the darkness. Hebert would be sitting down, feet hanging over the edge, casting yet another lure into the lake.

The couple also recalled the "most beautiful sunrises ever" beaming in their room every morning, " a great way to start the day." Then they thought how they were forced to postpone a much-anticipated April 8 wedding at the edge of that new pier.

Katrina was not going to relocate them. Not now, they said.

After searching the Internet, the couple found Deltec Homes, the Asheville, N.C., company specializing in round houses capable of withstanding winds of 150 mph. And although they'd heard of steel and concrete homes, which are also advertised as hurricane proof, the couple favored the round home.

But they needed more proof before plunking $120,000 on a 2,400-square-foot home. To investigate, they packed their bags and drove to Florida and Pass Christian, Miss., where the Deltec manufactured round homes survived Katrina and previous other hurricanes.

They chatted with homeowners and took in the home's praises. But what they saw with their own eyes was the most convincing.

Even after the storms, the round homes stood tall, towering above the ruins of entire neighborhoods scattered in heaps of debris. The couple immediately noticed only a few shingles were missing. Chad turned to Leanne. "This is it. We've got insurance. Let's rebuild. Give it one more shot," he said.

Friends and family thought they were nuts.

"People ask us all the time, 'Why are you going to rebuild?'" Leanne said. "I say, 'If you ever saw the sunrises and sunsets, you'd come back, too."

Modica piped in.

"People keep saying you can't rebuild out here. We're saying you can. We just want to give people some incentive," he said.

Within a few days, that incentive should be evident. It takes five to seven days to build a Deltec round home after each part is shipped on 18-wheelers. After construction began last Monday, contractors are wrapping up the finishing touches.

Modica plans to install an outside elevator to reach the home's first floor, 20 feet above the ground and 3 feet higher than the parish's post-Katrina building codes of 17 feet elevations along Lakeview Drive.

He also outfitted the upstairs master bedroom with several windows, beckoning the sun to wake he and Hebert up each morning.

"Plus," he said, "I can find Leanne easy in the middle of the night, if she's fishing."

Turning to look at his fianc/e, Modica smiled, knowing in a matter of months, he'll be able to outfit the home, put in his round bar and mount a flat screen on the wall just in time for the New Orleans Saint's season opener.

But is he scared another storm will rip away the home?

"Life's a gamble," he said. "We'll see. Right now I just can't wait to get back out on that pier and go fishing with my wife."