Plaquemines Parish, LA

Fourth & Forward

As the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, the President of Plaquemines Parish reflects on the areas recovery progress over the last year.

It's going real good. You know we've had a lot of projects working with the state and also with private funding, that all of that has come together, as well as volunteer groups building homes. So I'd give the overall parish an A for recovery this year.

Well the biggest success is the community centers. That we were able to work with the United Way, YMCA, FEMA to bring together several of the buildings in each of those communities in one large center that will have multi uses for the community. We think each of those centers in each of those communities will be the cornerstone to bring people back.

After Katrina, it was floating in the water. Obviously it was not filled when it came down.

That was one of the things we worked quickly to get put back up. And we had to re-do the structure in the ground, before we reconstructed it and get that approved through FEMA.

So it's really been a symbol to the South End. There's a sense of pride to see that back up in the air and really gave the community a sense of we are coming back.

I tell you, that building is a great example of how working with the old and the new can happen and happen in a timely manner.

But FEMA did an excellent job of working with us to keep that project rolling along and we should be able to have a Christmas celebration there this year.

The fire stations are great. They are built bigger and better so they should withstand any type of storm we'd get in the South End, so I think. You know we have an all-volunteer fire department in Plaquemines Parish, and that's the pride of the firemen, their fire stations.

The rooms where the firemen meet and sleep are elevated so they won't flood again. And all the new bells and whistles that are going into these fire stations are going to make them state of the art facilities, and something we can be proud of.

The response by FEMA has been real good. We've really had a great working relationship in getting things through the process.

Protection for the future is as important as the rebuilding process, so I think those things coupled together, working together, all those things starting to be finished up will give people the comfort level to come back.