Two years after hurricane damage closed Louisiana school, community waits to see if a rebuild will be approved

Two years after Hurricane Ida badly damaged Fisher Middle-High School in Lafitte, Louisiana, students and staff are still unable to resume classes there as they wait to see whether the campus will be rebuilt.

The New Orleans Times Picayune reports that although Jefferson Parish district officials have vowed to rebuild the school, they say federal bureaucracy is preventing the project from moving forward.

Following the hurricane, Fisher students were bused 14 miles north to John Ehret High School. When the 2023-24 school year opened last month, those students were relocated to the renovated Westbank Community Campus in Marrero, where they'll stay until the Fisher campus can be reopened.

Two years after Ida, officials are unable to say where repair or rebuilding plans stand.

In a statement, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said that Fisher was approved as a replacement project because of damage sustained during Hurricane Ida and was awarded more than $2.1 million in July.

But Jefferson Parish Board Member Clay Moise said FEMA's statement that Fisher was approved as a replacement project was "hogwash" and that the district is still awaiting a decision from FEMA on what the agency would reimburse. The $2.1 million awarded was for architectural studies to determine repair costs.

Moise said a new school would cost upwards of $30 million.

Board members and Lafitte officials have met with FEMA staff nearly weekly to ask the agency for a clearer answeon how much of a Fisher rebuild would be covered by federal dollars. Last October, without a clear answer, the Jefferson Parish School Board selected an architect for the school design, contingent upon receiving written notification from FEMA that it agrees with the district's damage assessment.

That agreement has yet to come.

"We're going on two years, and they don't even know if it's a rebuild or a repair," Lafitte Mayor Tim Kerner said.

For Kerner, Fisher is a key to maintaining a thriving Lafitte community amid rising insurance costs and the threat of future storms.

"There's nothing more important for our community than that high school," he said. "We live and die by that school; without it we can't thrive."