New Orleans, LA

December 2009

���Rebirth��� of Holy Cross School

Holy Cross School was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The school is now rebuilding with the help of more than $88 million obligated by FEMA.

When Katrina hit in 2005, our whole campus was covered with anywhere from 5 to 10 feet of water, a 16 acre campus. 

The lower 9th ward was obviously as you know totally devastated. New Orleans East was totally devastated. St. Bernard Parish was totally devastated. A large percentage of our student population came from those areas. So in order for us to remain viable and to have enough students to operate an institution and continue the mission of Holy Cross, we had to find a location where we could invest the money, rebuild the school in order to stay open.

Everybody was rebuilding their houses during the day and going to school at night and I���ve told my parents this a thousand times, but during that time when everyone was struggling, Holy Cross was what kept me together, kept my family together, and kept me and all my friends together.

We have three buildings, classroom buildings, the middle school, high school and the administration building. It���s called the administration building basically because my office is in there. But it really houses the 8th grade center, our library and our art classrooms.

Cabrini Grammar School, Cabrini Church and Redeemer Seton High School, all owned by the Archdiocese of New Orleans. The Bishop was not going to open any one of them.

We were able to purchase the land from the Archdiocese of New Orleans and relocate here.

We had a 106 review on the church because it was deemed to be architecturally significant, so we had to go through a 106 review and in the memorandum of agreement, we were to use certain artifacts from the church. The cross is on top of the bell tower right now, the fountain you see is actually where the sanctuary was in the church and there���s a plaque on the front of the fountain which is actually written by the parishioners and is part of the memorandum of agreement.

So just about everything on this campus is funded one way or another by FEMA.

FEMA you know has been really our savior, starting with our modular units, getting us up and running, helping us with the construction of our new campus. We���ve had a tremendous working relationship with FEMA.

We follow the regs as written, we do exactly what they ask us to do, and it���s been an extremely good relationship.

I think the future is very bright for us. From almost being totally wiped out of existence, we���re stable now, we���re moving forward, even though some of our students are still in modulars. Some are in the main buildings now. But the future is extremely bright for Holy Cross.

It���s just fantastic. From going to the beautiful campus we had, the old campus at 4950, to being in trailers and going with some of the hardships we had to deal with, to finally having a foundation to go to school in, a place we can call home, there���s nothing better.

For more information visit www.FEMA.gov.