Vermilion Parish, LA

July, 2009

Wall of Protection

Hurricane Rita caused extensive damage to Dozier Elementary School. Now as the school rebuilds, leaders are taking a unique step to make sure it doesn���t flood again. With $1.2 million from FEMA, they are building a floodwall around the campus.

We had surge that came up about 28 inches inside the school, and it brought a lot of marsh mud and other debris and trash. We had some wind damage with the roof and some of the air conditioning units. All of the mechanical and electrical got swamped with water.

And then Ike came this past fall and brought about the same amount of water into the town of Erath.

We redid all the electrical and the mechanical. We raised all of the air conditioning units. And in the meantime, they���re also building a mitigating wall.

It���s about five and a half feet above ground level, and basically it���s supposed to contain the campus on the inside from any flood waters from the outside. However if we do get an abundance amount of rain, we do have the pump-off system to take care of that in case we do get a lot of rising water from rain.

At first, there was some concern there would be a wall that was 10 foot high and you wouldn���t be able to see into the classrooms, but I think everybody who���s seen the construction of it thinks it���s appealing, it���s not as bad as they thought it would be.

I think people are going to be very happy with the repairs they are going to see. The school���s going to look like it���s brand new. It���s protected because of the wall. So I think overall the final outcome is we���re better off  than we were before.

It���s been a drawn-out process and very difficult process.

It���s been a good partnership. We appreciate the help FEMA has done for us, but the most important thing is the final outcome and that���s where we are at this point.