BAYOU LA BATRE -- A pair of sisters stood in the shade of a tree Tuesday, watching a 100-ton crane lower half of a brand new, and completely free, pre-fabricated home onto concrete pilings on the spot where their home had stood before Hurricane Katrina.

A team of workers soon put together the two halves, bolted and lashed them down, then fitted the halves together with fraction-of-an-inch precision. It was the fourth of 42 homes the city plans to deliver in the coming months, at a federally funded $98,000 to $112,000 apiece, for storm victims.

"I always slept in the bedroom with my sister," said Ellen Barbour, 34, standing beside her sister, Alicia. Their mother, Regina Barbour, in her 70s, did not leave their Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer to watch their new home take shape.

The old home had two bedrooms while this one has three, Ellen Barbour said. She said that, for the first time in her life, she'll have a room of her own.

The construction and installation of the modular homes is being overseen by the modular division of Mobile's The Mitchell Company. After months of planning and waiting, the first homes were put in place this week. The company plans to install six homes per week, weather permitting, until up to 45 homes are in place.

All of the houses are free to the owners, who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters in 2005. The city selected 42 applicants who met qualifications -- among them, that they had clear title to their land, that they owned it prior to Katrina and that the home was irreparably damaged by the storm, said Mayor Stan Wright.

Priority was given to those who, like the Barbours, are still living in FEMA trailers, Wright said. Special consideration is also given those who are handicapped or have special needs, he said.

The brand new homes -- ranging from 1,100 to 1,400 square feet -- are being paid for using part of a $37 million grant the city received last summer from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The grant will primarily build a new $24 wastewater treatment plant, but includes $8.8 million for new home construction and for elevating houses in the floodplain.

The two halves of each home were built by Dallas-based Palm Harbor Homes, and that company's workers were also driving the assembled halves into the Bayou then putting them together.