St. Tammany News

Storm's aftermath a nightmare for Slidell family

The problems wrought by Hurricane Katrina on Slidell were many, and residents had to deal with overwhelming legal, monetary and emotional issues before they got back on their feet. But for the Stringer family, the storm's aftermath has been one long nightmare.

A backhoe starts to demolish the Stringer house on Woodcrest Street in Slidell a year after the hurricane so the Stringers could build a new house on the same lot. (Photo by Bradley Stringer)

Like many residents in St. Tammany Parish, the Stringers lost their home from wind and water damage. It was demolished to make way for a new one. But then, shoddy construction by an allegedly disreputable contractor forced the Stringers to have their new home demolished before it was finished. And while fighting legal issues with the contractor, the Stringers also had to deal with a near-death bout of illness that struck Jennifer Stringer, having Bradley Stringer arrested for theft and living with their two young sons in a small room for a year and half at a friend's house in Mandeville.

"It's an experience where I've learned. It was an expensive lesson, but it made me tougher," said Bradley, who works at the Louisiana Heart Hospital in Lacombe as an X-ray technologist.

Today, the Stringers have a new house in the Audubon Estates subdivision in north Slidell, Jennifer is recovering from her illness and back at work as a registered nurse at the Louisiana Heart Hospital, and the chaos has settled down. But they are also $400,000 in debt and still grieve over the loss of their home that was destroyed twice.

When Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005, the Stringers evacuated. When they returned, three trees had collapsed on the house, and the storm surge had flooded the house with 4 feet of water. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said the house had over 51 percent damage. With the insurance money and $21,000 from the Road Home Program, the Stringers decided to rebuild.

That's when they met Bobby Creel. Creel, a contractor, was working on the house of Jeff and Lynn Kerling, next-door neighbors to the Stringers. Like the Stringers, the Kerlings house had to be demolished and rebuilt.

Lynn Kerling said Creel had approached her one day and offered his services to rebuild her house. He told Kerling he had built subdivisions in Mississippi with his brother, Dexter, a licensed contractor.

"I went to Mississippi to look at their work, and it was good," Kerling said.

With a severe shortage of contractors amidst all the destruction, the Kerlings signed a contract with the Creels in December 2005, and their storm-damaged house was demolished shortly thereafter.

Kerling told the Stringers about Creel, and they signed a contract with him on Jan. 23, 2006, and paid him $130,000. The Stringer house was demolished in February.

Then Dexter Creel had a massive heart attack that put him out of commission. Bobby Creel told the Stringers he had a commercial license, but not a residential contracting license.

Bradley and Creel went to the Slidell Department of Permits, where Creel told officials he was applying for a license from the state. In order to get a Slidell license, Bradley agreed to sign the application for the permit, which was awarded in May.

Meanwhile, the Stringers and their two children were living in one room at a friend's house in Mandeville. Jennifer was suffering from a severe case of endometriosis. At one point she came close to death. She lost over 20 pounds and all her hair.

Creel poured the slab for the Stringer house in June, then poured the slab for the Kerlings in July. After that, things started to unravel.

Both houses were going to be elevated to avoid future flood damage. Creel had ordered cardboard concrete forms for the piers on the Stringer house, but, according to the Stringers, Creel did not store them correctly and left them out in the rain, where the cardboard got wet and the forms warped.

"The pier forms were ruined, and we told him not to use them," Jennifer said.

Creel didn't listen. He poured the concrete piers and kept the forms together with duct tape. Later, the Stringers found out Creel should have poured the piers first and then the slab so that the piers would be physically connected to the slab for stability. They also found out later Creel had not used the correct amount of rebar metal in the piers. In some of the piers, he had not used any rebar.

The Stringers felt something was wrong. After Creel started framing the house, the couple noticed the building was too big for the slab, and they could see the house was leaning.

"He jury-rigged the frame to make it fit the slab," Bradley said.

The Stringers hired Dammon Engineering to come in and inspect the house.

"The engineer was dumbfounded," Jennifer said.

The engineer's report found severe structural mistakes.The piers were not steady, and there were large gaps between the piers and the floor of the house.

When Director of Building Safety Dean Born went out to inspect the house, he agreed with the report from Dammon Engineering.

"Born laughed at the construction," Jennifer said. "He told us he had never seen anything like it."

The Stringers asked Creel to fix the damage, and he demanded more money. On Sept. 7, 2006, they gave him $23,000 to fix the house.

"Then he disappeared for awhile," Jennifer said.

The same thing happened to the Kerlings. Lynn Kerling said Creel never came to the job site, and the workers on her house "didn't know anything about what they were doing."

Born told the Stringers he could not give the house his approval and suggested they hire a lawyer, which they did in November 2006.

The Stringers also discovered that Creel had ordered a lot of lumber and custom windows from a local hardware store without telling Bradley. The owner of the store told Bradley that Creel had gotten approval from Bradley to deliver the windows, but Bradley said he didn't know anything about the windows. The windows had been delivered on Nov. 17, 2006, and stored in the house.

That was the final straw for the Stingers. They had their lawyer fire Creel on Nov. 28, and Creel responded several days later.

"The S.O.B. mailed me a letter saying I had broken the contract, and that I owed him money," Bradley said.

Borne told the Stringers the house was unsafe and posed a safety hazard for the other homes on the block.

So Bradley went to the Feb. 27 meeting of the Slidell City Council and requested that his unfinished house be condemned and demolished.

"We had enough. The kids were having a rough time, and I wanted the house demolished," Bradley said.

The council reluctantly granted his request, and the house was demolished May 18, 2007.

But the Stringers' troubles did not end there. Even though they had paid Creel $130,000 for materials and labor, the hardware store said Creel had not paid for the materials. The owner of the store, Michael Moore, said he couldn't take back the windows because they were custom-built, and the Stringers don't know what happened to the shingles. Moore put a $34,000 lien on the Stringers for the materials.

They couple had run out of money and couldn't pay. On April 14, 2007, Moore filed a theft charge against Bradley, who was arrested in Mandeville.

"I lost my mind when he was arrested," Jennifer said. "I just fell down on the floor and cried."

At the injunction hearing, Moore told Bradley that if he paid the money, the charges would be dropped. The Stringers emptied both their retirement accounts to pay the lien, and the charges against Bradley were dropped.

"I still think it was extortion," Jennifer said angrily.

The St. Tammany District Attorney's Office got in touch with the Stringers shortly after and told them they were starting a case against Creel and other contractors for fraudulent business practices.

Assistant District Attorney Rick Wood said Creel was arrested in January and charged with theft over $500 and will appear in Judge Larry Green's courtroom in March.

Wood said the Stringers are not alone, nor are they the only victims of unscrupulous contractors. Currently, the DA's office is handling 16 cases where contractors took deposits and never did the work on people's houses.

"We've seen a lot of this since the hurricane,' Wood said. "These victims have suffered twice, first the hurricane and then these bad contractors."

He said residents should always check the credentials of contractors before signing any contract.

"The problem is they front the money to the contractor without checking him out," Wood said. "You also have to be careful and read those contracts before doing anything."

He said Bradley's arrest is not uncommon, either.

"A lot of suppliers are putting liens on houses because they haven't gotten paid by the contractors," Wood said.

But he said the St. Tammany District Attorney's Office is aggressive in prosecuting contractor fraud cases.

The Stringers finally went to the Small Business Administration, where they got two loans, one to pay off the mortgage on their original house and the other to buy a new house on Longleaf Drive in Slidell. They moved in Dec. 6, 2007, and were able to celebrate Christmas in their new home.

Besides the criminal charge against Creel, he also faces four civil suits against him for fraud from his other clients. The Kerlings are suing Creel for ordering $38,000 worth of columns they never agreed to. Plus, the columns were not the right size. The Kerlings fired Creel shortly after the Stringers fired him, and Lynn Kerling is glad to be rid of him. She has hired a new contractor and hopes to be in her rebuilt home by June.

"I'm sick I recommended him to those nice kids, and I'm sick they couldn't get their house back," she said.

Even though the Stringers are $400,000 in debt, not to mention the money they allegedly lost to Creel, they are just happy to be together as a family. The Stringers are high school sweethearts and have been married for 11 years. They moved to Slidell in 1996.

"The experience has made us stronger as a couple and brought our family together," Jennifer said.

For Bradley, he has learned a hard lesson.

"I used to believe in the best of people. Now, I don't trust anybody," Bradley said. "I've learned that money is power, and it makes some people evil. It's a bad feeling when you can't help your family."