Lighthouse High on Preservers' Wish List: But Their Own Storm Recovery Comes First

Posted on: Monday, 31 December 2007, 12:00 CST

By Donna Harris, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

Dec. 31, 2007--PASCAGOULA, MS -- A plan to move the Round Island Lighthouse remains on the back burner for city officials.

The historic lighthouse, which was uprooted by Hurricane Georges and toppled by Hurricane Katrina, sits crumbled on the island four miles south of Pascagoula.

Though the lighthouse's renovations are important for the structure's historical value, housing needs for residents still top the list in a post-Katrina Pascagoula. "We're focusing on other recovery," said Betty Bensey, city community development director.

Bensey said the Round Island Lighthouse Preservation Society is still "very interested" in the lighthouse's restoration, but since most of the members' homes were destroyed or damaged in Katrina, their focus has been elsewhere as well. "Everybody was so severely affected by this storm," Bensey said.

Pascagoula historian Liz Ford said the group has taken a "leave of absence at the moment," and although they're not having regular meetings, the officers still communicate with each other regularly. "We hope before long activities will pick up with the lighthouse and we will be back in full force," Ford said.

The state Department of Archives and History has discussed with FEMA the possibility of moving what's left of the lighthouse to the mainland and reconstructing it somewhere near water, in the city.

The state, however, has not issued a permit to move or rebuild the structure, which was built in the 1800s; the city has not issued a permit.

The lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but moving it ashore could jeopardize that status because its significance is as a lighthouse on an island. However, Bensey found precedence for moving lighthouses further inland to protect them from erosion.

After Georges, about 50 percent of the lighthouse was fished out of the Mississippi Sound with cranes and then stored at a Port Authority building near Bayou Casotte. FEMA paid for a caisson to be built around the two-story base, which had been left standing and was to have beach pumped in around it.

But Katrina toppled that and washed away a portion of the beach replenishment.