Hurricanes create new mortgage crisis

After Hurricane Katrina, Bernadette Guidry accepted her mortgage company’s offer to delay monthly payments until repairs were made to her Houma home. Her credit was good. She’d never missed a mortgage payment. Four years later, the brick ranch teeters on the brink of foreclosure, she has filed for personal bankruptcy and owes $188,000 on the house, $49,000 more than before. Guidry is one of five locals who deferred post-hurricane mortgage payments, a decision that led to financial woes, red tape that some fear they’ll never unravel and nearly caused some to lose their homes.