Learn how FEMA continues to support the restoration of New York's infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Here you will learn more about the rebuilding of public schools in Long Beach, Long Island.
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FEMA remains committed to helping communities rebuild stronger and more resilient.
Video
Many public were schools were either damaged or destroyed in Long Beach, Long Island. It took several weeks to get some of the schools back up and running. In this video you will learn more about how funding from the FEMA Public Assistance program and mitigation advice helped paved the way for schools to reopen:
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No Place like School: FEMA Helps Long Beach Public Schools Get Back to Learning
On the Friday afternoon before Hurricane Sandy hit in October of 2012, West Elementary school Principal Sandra Schneider recalled that some of her students were anxiously anticipating a whole week off from school due to the widely publicized storm. “If you have Monday off, ha-ha, don’t worry, I’ll see you all on Tuesday,” Schneider teased, believing that the hurricane had been greatly exaggerated by the media.
The following week, Hurricane Sandy lived up to its destructive hype. “The community was devastated,” Long Beach School District’s Chief Operating Officer Michael DeVito said. “At one point during the storm, the bay met the ocean on the island.” According to DeVito, the school district, which has 4,000 students, sustained approximately $35 million in damage. The administration building was inundated with two feet of water. A city inspection determined that the building was uninhabitable and it was eventually demolished.
Out of the six schools, West Elementary was the hardest hit when its entire first floor flooded with three to four feet of brackish salt water. Flooding also took out West’s heating and electrical systems, and destroyed the gym floor. Displaced West students were initially doubled up in the East Elementary classrooms and then transferred over to the Lindell campus.
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“It was very important to get students back into the classrooms with their teachers, their friends, and back into learning as a way of healing,” stressed DeVito. Students who were once excited about getting a “rain day” from school were now anxious about “going back home, back to West,” said Schneider.
To help in the recovery process, FEMA personnel met with school administrators to offer assistance on how to apply for federal funding as well as provide advice on affordable mitigation measures.
“FEMA Public Assistance has two main objectives,” explained FEMA Public Assistance Task Force Leader, David Davich. “The first is to help communities and applicants repair or replace infrastructure that’s been damaged by a disaster and our second objective is to help strengthen that infrastructure.”
Under the Public Assistance Alternative Procedures Pilot Program for Permanent Work, FEMA awarded the district more than $4.8 million for a new administration building. DeVito emphasized that the new building, to be completed by December 2015, will be elevated above the required floodplain level in order to protect it from future storm surges.
FEMA mitigation teams also were on hand to help the district look at cost effective ways to incorporate mitigation projects into rebuilding. School administrators were particularly concerned about the destroyed boiler rooms and how they could prevent that equipment from being flooded again.
“We needed to move our electrical and heating systems out of the storm zone, so we took the advice of engineers, architects and FEMA consultants to figure out what particular mitigation measures we needed to implement depending on the building, elevation and physical site,” said DeVito.
At Long Beach High School, the district secured the boiler room with watertight storm doors. For East Elementary, it moved the boiler room from the basement and converted a first floor classroom to house it.
Other key mitigation measures funded in full or in part by FEMA include:
- Installing hurricane windows for Long Beach High School;
- Replacing wooden cabinetry, desks and casework with water resistant material made from a plastic composite derived from resin;
- Raising ventilation and baseboard heating systems, electrical outlets and;
- Replacing the West and East Elementary gym floors with water resistant flooring material.
To date, FEMA has obligated the district more than $26 million for replacement, restoration and mitigation.
Out of all the schools, West Elementary proved to be the most vulnerable to storm damage because of its low elevation. Subsequently, it presented the hardest challenge for mitigating its electrical and heating systems.
“We ended up building an entire mezzanine level on top of the first floor for the boiler room,” said DeVito. This was by far the district’s biggest mitigation project and the reason why getting students back into West was delayed until September 2013.
“On that first day of school we had a Wizard of Oz, theme,” said Schneider. The staff painted a yellow brick road on the sidewalk that led up to its front doors with a rainbow made from balloons. Every teacher wore red shoes. “It was really comforting and a relief for everybody to be back,” sighed Schneider. “It was a priceless homecoming because there is no place like home.”