St. Michaels Church in Biloxi to Get $3 Million Restoration by Keith Burton - GCN 2/16/09 Defiantly hurricane resistant, St. Michaels Church in east Biloxi will soon experience a $3 million restoration. Biloxi Catholic Diocese officials made the announcement during Sunday's Mass. St. Michaels stood despite Katrina's onslaught, but the structure was badly damaged. The beachfront church sits directly across Biloxi Casino Row, which took major damage from Katrina on August 29, 2005. Since then, the church has receive only a few repairs after the grounds were cleaned up. St. Michaels also survived hurricane Camille in 1969 and all the storms since then. The uniquely designed church with its scalloped-shaped roof has long been a Biloxi landmark. As Katrina took out thousands of Point Cadet homes and their families relocated, there had been questions whether there were enough parishioners to make the church viable. That question now seems answered. Work gets underway on the church this week and is expected to take at least a year. GCN talked with Father Greg of the Biloxi Diocese, the pastor of St. Michaels about the restoration Tuesday morning. Father Greg says the restoration of the church will be done in five phases with the first phase to include the exterior and roof. Later phases will be to replace the damaged stained glass windows, floor and pews. The floor is to be terrazzo. Pastor Greg also said the small circular chapel will also be included in the work. A new set of offices will be added to the church on the north side of of the interior. The former offices were part of a child-care structure that was on property to the west of the church. Father Greg says that property was sold to Harrah's casino after the hurricane. The pews turned into a two year delay in getting the church restoration underway. "I felt that the church should have chairs that could be easily removed in future storms," Father Greg explained, "But Bishop Thomas J. Rodi in Mobile, AL, felt that pews should be returned to the church. I argued that the pews couldn't be easily removed and could damage the building if another storm occurred." In the end, the pews won out. Still, Father Greg says that insurance will be more costly and in the future if the church is again damaged, it will not recover as much insurance money as it did for this storm. Regarding questions over whether there were enough parishioners to support the church Father Greg said that attendance at the church has been good, even higher than before the hurricane. "This church is a survivor, like this community," Father Greg said. (GCN Photo Below: St. Michaels Church is September 2005. This photo shows the church's condition following hurricane Katrina. In the background is the former Casino Magic casino barge that barely missed the church when the giant barge was lifted from its moorings and tossed ashore just to the west of the church.)
(NOAA Photo Below: St. Michaels Church is the circular structure.)
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