New Orleans, LA

September 2009

Moving Forward

Southern University at New Orleans works to rebuild after Katrina. FEMA has obligated more than $73 million to help with the school���s efforts.

Right after Katrina, we were all displaced from this location. We had 11 buildings and all 11 buildings were underwater between 4 to 11 feet of water.

The water sat in this complex for many, many weeks, which only added to the destruction.

With the funds that we were able to get from a donor from Washington, DC, along with FEMA and the state, we decided to bring this building back first and then all our buildings followed subsequently.

I really want to congratulate everyone working with FEMA over the last few months. FEMA has really come forward and made some decisions that we���ve been wanting to be made all along, since 2005. At this moment, we���re pleased to welcome the Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary Napolitano here at the beginning of our school year, where she announced an additional $32 million to SUNO, which we���ll use to rebuild four of our academic buildings: clark, new science, old science and multi-purpose building.

The Clark building was the one I said earlier was most devastated with 11 feet of water. So that itself can be torn down and rebuilt now, because there���s no one occupying that building at this point.

I believe that maybe between 3 to 5 years we should be able to put this behind us, get our new buildings in place and recover from all our devastation from Katrina.

We didn���t wish Katrina on anyone but the fact that it happened gave us great opportunity that we probably wouldn���t have had for a long time to come in re-thinking how we want to restructure and service our kids, our students as we move forward in the future. 

So there is a silver lining there. It brought the community together, we are working together to address common problems, it���s allowing us to rebuild in a smarter, better way, and its also allowing us to reach out to our students to come in and matriculate with us in the future.

For more information visit www.FEMA.gov.