November 3, 2008

Southern U. at New Orleans Locks Horns With FEMA Over Katrina Repairs

At Southern University at New Orleans, hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a battle between university officials and the Federal Emergency Management Agency has thrown into sharp relief an elevation-based discrepancy in efforts to repair the campus, reports the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

The university has petitioned the federal agency, known as FEMA, for an estimated $94-million to relocate the campus to higher ground, at a site a half-mile away. The proposed location is where students and faculty members lived and conducted classes in trailers for 2½ years after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.

But because an agreement has not been reached, the lower levels of many academic and other buildings — which were inundated in the post-Katrina flooding — remain gutted and unoccupied, while the upper floors house students and faculty members in classrooms and offices.

In order to obtain the federal funds, FEMA officials said the state must provide documentation from an expert in flood-plain management saying the buildings have been substantially damaged. “The fact that they’ve been able to make repairs and occupy those upper floors indicates that the viability of those buildings is still there,” Jim Stark, FEMA’s assistant administrator for Gulf Coast Recovery, told the newspaper.

State and university officials, however, said the possibility of renewed flooding on the low-lying campus had made them reluctant to make any repairs to ground floors. —Caitlin Moran

Comments

1. Well, heavens, let’s NOT use the available to prevent this from happening again. We couldn’t possibly be that smart, could we? Let’s keep those darn people in their original footprint so they get flooded out again And it will happen.

   — ap    Nov 3, 04:08 PM    #

2. It’s the state of Louisiana’s responsibility to rebuild the campus, not the federal government’s, or at least not FEMA’s. I don’t think any California universities received FEMA aid to repair earthquake damage.

   — Rob    Nov 3, 04:25 PM    #

3. I disagree, Rob. As a former employee of SUNO and a life long citizen of New Orleans, I believe FEMA can and should pay.

   California does very well as a research dollar destination. SUNO is a small school that does a wonderful job and deserves help from FEMA.

   Relocating the campus will ensure this type of damage does not happen again.

   — Bill    Nov 3, 04:59 PM    #

4. I am not sure this campus should be re-built at all. Why should there be two state universities less than two miles apart. SUNO should have been merged with the University of New Orleans years ago and avoid hundreds of thousands of dollars in duplicated expenses.

   — LS    Nov 3, 05:22 PM    #

5. This is a typical response from someone who does not understand the value HBCU’s. The chilly and unwelcoming climate at TWI’s simply cannot empower underrepresented populations like HBCU’s do.

   — Errol    Nov 3, 06:59 PM    #

6. I think in a time when we can elect a black President that HBCU and affirmative action has run it course. Why does the school not have an endowment fund or slush fund for such events? They know it could happen; after all they are in a city under the sea level. FEMA is to help people not colleges especially ones that are not willing to chip in for moving cost. I know government should pay for everything, well we will in about 60 days….

   — Remember the Alamo    Nov 4, 03:26 PM    #

7. What is a TWI mentioned in comment #5?

   — David    Nov 4, 05:42 PM    #

8. TWI = Traditionally White Institution I would guess. I’ve not seen the acronym. But looks like this is a pretty good guess.

   — DDVA    Nov 5, 01:10 PM    #

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