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.

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