More FEMA frustration: Agency’s ‘positive step’ nets Cameron little

*published June 3, 2009

BY VANESSA C. DEGGINS
Cameron Parish officials are scratching their heads over a FEMA announcement that puts a storage shed in Holly Beach but leaves the chance of rebuilding damaged schools up in the air.

On Tuesday, Cameron Parish officials — along with those of other coastal parishes — participated in a conference call with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In it, a FEMA public affairs officer read a cryptic letter that heralded great strides in resolving the high-velocity zone situation, said Cameron Parish Administrator Tina Horn.

“The letter wasn’t really clear,” Horn said. “And after the reading, they (the public affairs officer) couldn’t answer any specific questions about our parishes.”

A preliminary FEMA map puts about 80 percent of Cameron Parish in a v-zone placement that would prevent the parish from receiving federal funding to rebuild.

Both U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter sent out news releases praising Tuesday’s progress.

Landrieu listed six of 34 projects that had been stopped but that now have a green light for funding. The projects are in Cameron, Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines and St. Tammany parishes.

They comprise three buildings in Grand Isle State Park, a guardhouse in the South Shore Harbor, a radio tower in the Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Management Area and a “maintenance unit,” or storage shed, in Holly Beach.

The Landrieu release said the projects account for $366,000 — out of the $33 million in 28 remaining projects.

Vitter’s news release called this an “important, positive step forward for communities in Grand Isle and Cameron Parish.”

He said the he would meet next week with Craig Fugate, the newly confirmed FEMA head. Neither Vitter nor an aide was available for comment late Tuesday.

“It sounds like they just took care of state projects,” Horn said, echoing criticisms made on the conference call that there was no local input. “We are the ones on the ground who have to deal with this. Why didn’t they talk to us first?”

In Cameron Parish, Horn said, the most important projects are getting Johnson Bayou and South Cameron high schools rebuilt.

Right now, the parish can only get money to repair the schools, but School Superintendent Stephanie Rodrigue has expressed a desire to rebuild both schools to federal elevation standards.

Rodrigue said she considers it a waste to rebuild schools to lower elevations when they could just flood or be destroyed again.

“And we don’t want our children in temporary buildings for another year,” Horn said.

Marni Goldberg, with Landrieu’s office, said the 28 remaining projects may be approved by the end of the week, but she could offer no timetable for the v-zone issue.

State Sen. Dan “Blade” Morrish agreed with Horn that public input must be sought and that the coastal parishes must be able to rebuild.

“You have people rebuilding on Bolivar island (a peninsula near Galveston Island) right now,” Morrish said. “And the new hurricane season is here, and we’re still in limbo.”

Horn said Mark Cooper with the state emergency preparedness office had been pushing for a hearing with Fugate by the first week of June, but said she remains unaware of a specific date.

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