Gulf Coast Booksellers Deal With Varying Degrees of Devastation

This week, as part of its continuing coverage of the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the booksellers of the Gulf Coast, Bookselling This Week talks to Scott Naugle of Pass Christian Bookstore in Pass Christian, Mississippi, and New Orleans booksellers Britton Trice of Garden District Bookshop, Cynthia Dike of Maple Street Books and Maple Street Children's, Tom Lowenburg of Octavia Books, and Joanne Sealy of DeVille Books.

The town of Pass Christian was a "small, old seaside town, a quaint little town, and the bookstore was right at the harbor," said Pass Christian Bookstore's owner, Scott Naugle.

But Hurricane Katrina changed all that.

The massive storm spared few buildings in the Mississippi harbor town, and over the course of a couple of days in late August, hurricane winds and gigantic storm surges demolished the town, taking Naugle's bookstore along with it. "There's nothing left of [the bookstore] except a cement slab," he reported. "I couldn't find any debris, and the walls were concrete with enforced metal rods. They say there was a 28-foot storm surge."

Naugle commented that it's much the same throughout Pass Christian. "Seventy percent of the town is gone," and Katrina tore down many of the old oaks that peppered Pass Christian's seaside landscape. "When I say there's nothing standing, I mean there isn't," Naugle said. "There is mud and debris everywhere."

As Katrina charged toward the Gulf Coast, Naugle had evacuated to Jackson, Mississippi. "For the first seven or eight days, you're just glad you got away from it -- material things can be replaced, life cannot," he said.

After the storm passed, the hard part was getting back into town. "There's so much rubble," Naugle said. "There's a military checkpoint at the town -- you need a driver's license with a valid Pass Christian address to [re-enter the town]."

Fortunately for Naugle, his home suffered "minimal" damage. "My home is one of the few still standing and livable," he said. "There was some wind damage -- I say minimal -- but it's about $25,000 worth."

Naugle noted that the water and sewer lines have been temporarily constructed above ground, but there is no telephone service or cable. "[The telephone company] said it would take at least three months for the phones, because they have to completely reconstruct the system. As for cable, it's not coming back." He said the cable company doesn't believe it's worth rebuilding the system due to the extent of the damage.

Nonetheless, Naugle is determined to rebuild and reopen his store, despite the apparent enormity of the task. "[Much] depends on how quickly things move in Pass Christian," he said. "I hate to say this, but I don't think it will be before two years."

In New Orleans, Garden District Bookshop opened for business [on Monday, October 10], reported Garden District's Britton Trice, speaking to BTW from Milwaukee. He said he had spent most of last week in New Orleans to meet with staff and to check on his store and his small publishing company, B.E. Trice Publishing.

Upon meeting with his bookstore staff, "we decided we needed to be open -- we suffered no damage at all," Trice said. "We're just waiting to see if there will be customers." While his store did not suffer damage, his publishing house did lose 100 cases of Plantation Cookbook, though the signed limited edition books he carries were not affected.

Garden District will begin operation with a reduced staff, "with one staff person [in the store] at a time," Trice said. "I'm going back on the 19th for good."

Cynthia Dike reported that Maple Street Books and Maple Street Children's, the latter of which she is a co-owner, are in "pretty good shape." The stores suffered no leaks or flooding. "All the stock is just the way we left it," said Dike, who added that, out of great relief, "the first time I saw [Maple Street Children's], I just burst into tears." She explained that both stores are Civil-War-era buildings and have stood through many raging storms.

Maple Street Books and Maple Street Children's will open October 17 with limited hours. What was "worrisome," said Dike, was reopening the children's bookstore in a city without any children. "We need the schools to reopen to get back to normal," she said.

Her house, in Jefferson Parish, survived with some minor roof damage, said Dike, but her husband lost his job in the marine pleasure industry as a result of Katrina. "Everyone's lost something," she said. "There are no non-victims."

Tom Lowenburg, who reopened Octavia Books on October 8, also came through the storm with his home and business intact. Octavia's condition post-Katrina was "nearly perfect," he said. "There was just some minor damage to the building ... broken window panes, an awning was ripped off." The bookstore, Lowenburg explained, is on slightly higher ground that forms a natural levee. The building itself is over a century old with walls up to two-feet thick.

Since reopening, customers have been "very emotional," Lowenburg reported. "We've been exchanging hugs. People are glad we're here and have been cheering us on. It's just been overwhelmingly positive." He said it was a "relief to be back" after the anxiety of being away and only being able to speculate about the condition of his business and home.

"It's good to be back helping rebuild the community," said Lowenburg. "The bookstore is essentially the soul of the community, the place where people can meet and exchange ideas. That's our role, and I feel good about being back to exercise it."

While Lowenburg was happy to have Octavia survive Katrina, he explained, "I'm well aware not everyone was so fortunate. We certainly are counting our blessings and want to do whatever we can do help others deal with the really big struggle ahead."

For DeVille Books' Joanne Sealy and her family, Hurricane Katrina took a terrible personal toll: Her father, Arthur Ralph Mason, Sr., died during the evacuation of New Orleans.

Sealy explained via e-mail: "My mother and I are in North Little Rock, Arkansas, where we finally ended up after first evacuating to Texas. We returned to New Orleans briefly last week to check on our house." Sealy found the house still standing, but suffering from wind damage and fallen ceilings in the back of the house. Her neighborhood still had no electricity.

"We checked on the bookstore, located in the Central Business District (three blocks on the uptown side of Canal Street)," explained Sealy. "Fortunately, we didn't get too much water (about four to five inches, as far as we could tell), but the ubiquitous mold had begun on the one sheetrock wall -- the one containing my fiction section. Most of my other collections sat on brick walls or were freestanding. I figure about one-third of the collection will be lost. If we can't get dehumidifiers soon, however, I fear for the rest." About dehumidifiers, Sealy said that there was "not a one to be found in the New Orleans area."

Sealy is receiving some help in restoring her business from her landlord. "The owner had already ripped up the wet carpet, and I hope the arrangements to have the sheetrock ripped out have been fulfilled," she wrote. "We originally planned to reopen on the first of November, but it may be more like the 15th. The owner ... is working hard to get it up and running again. My mother and I will return to the city as soon as we have electricity and the house is habitable. My Dad perished in the evacuation of the city, we finally retrieved his remains and held his funeral here in Little Rock on September 29." --David Grogan and Karen Schechner

For information on the Bookseller Relief Fund, which is providing humanitarian relief to booksellers in need, go to www.bookweb.org/read/8092.