The hydraulic wheeze of a backhoe crushed and then removed the splintered wood and mortar last week of the last Hurricane Katrina-condemned home remaining in unincorporated St. Tammany, a move ending a three-year effort, parish officials said.

The home at 113 Monticheck Road in Madisonville was the last in a long line of households – 184 to be exact – damaged and abandoned once by the 2005 storm, and then during a final blow, condemned and reduced to rubble during the demolition process.

“While we still have other blighted property to address, it is a good feeling to see closure on this particular program after three years. Parish President Kevin Davis said. “We continue to move forward.”

Pictured, workers watch as the last Hurricane Katrina-condemned home is torn down in Madisonville.

The project, which began in the months after Katrina and lasted through Dec. 30, 2008, represents just a sliver of the overall damage Katrina’s whipping winds wrought.

In unincorporated St. Tammany alone, 4,378 homes were reviewed for possible structural damage in the months after the storm, 4,000 of which were “potentially abandoned,” Parish Planning Director Sidney Fontenot had said. But as more and more people returned and rebuilt their lives, the number of homes considered for the FEMA-sponsored demolition and condemnation process dipped to 915, Tom Bealle, St. Tammany Parish spokesman said.

But before any of those homes qualified to be torn down three steps occurred: an assessment by a civil engineer, FEMA’s own assessment and a hearing of an administrative judge to deem if the home is truly condemned, Bealle said.

In the end, 562 homes qualified for administrative hearings, but only 184 were demolished, Bealle said. About 300 or so homeowners who didn’t qualify either tore their own house down or renovated it on their own, Bealle said. The remaining 80 or so were resolved privately, he said.

But Andrew Thomas, FEMA spokesman, said as many as 840 homes were demolished in all of St. Tammany including municipalities, many of which had been condemned during a process that cost $215.2 million. Neither office could clarify and coordinate the figures.