FEMA Contributes to Rebuilding Campus of Port Sulphur High School
Release Date: August 8, 2007
Release Number: 1603-675
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NEW ORLEANS, La. -- Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Port Sulphur High School campus, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is helping make sure students will once again be educated in a permanent structure on the premise.
FEMA will grant the Plaquemines Parish School Board money to construct a school on the campus that will serve pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade students. After the hurricane, FEMA paid for a temporary facility for these students, South Plaquemines Elementary School. This facility is on the Port Sulphur High School campus. The school board does not know whether the new school, which will educate up to 700 students, will retain this name. No construction date is set.
Before Hurricane Katrina, this campus held classes through twelfth-grade. Students in grades seven through 12 are now attending classes at the new South Plaquemines High School.
"This will greatly strengthen the recovery of the area," Plaquemines Parish Superintendent Eva Jones said. "[The students] would love to have a school they consider a permanent school. Our people are resilient people and they're going back. It means a lot."
FEMA has obligated $15.6 million toward the reconstruction of the school, which Jones said she expects to open in three to five years. FEMA has obligated a total of $92.4 million toward the rebuilding of Plaquemines Parish schools.
When projects are obligated by FEMA through its supplemental Public Assistance grant, the funds are transferred to a Smartlink account. This allows the applicant, in this case the Plaquemines Parish School Board, to work with the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness as quickly as possible to access the reimbursement monies. The state may require additional documentation from the applicant before disbursing the funds. Obligated funds may change over time as the project worksheet is a living grant that is often adjusted as bids come in and scope of work is aligned.
The Public Assistance program works with state and local officials to fund recovery measures and the rebuilding of government and certain private nonprofit organizations' buildings, as well as roads, bridges and water and sewer plants. In order for the process to be successful, federal, state and local partners coordinate to draw up project plans, fund these projects and oversee their completion.
FEMA coordinates the federal government's role in preparing for, preventing, mitigating the effects of, responding to, and recovering from all domestic disasters, whether natural or man-made, including acts of terror.
Last Modified: Wednesday, 08-Aug-2007 07:41:52