By Chris Kirkham
The Times-Picayune
NEW ORLEANS — More than two dozen Hurricane Katrina and Rita rebuilding projects delayed for months across coastal Louisiana can now move forward now that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has revised rules that had prohibited federal investment in risky areas.
Coming on the heels of Sen. David Vitter’s 12-day hold on the nomination of FEMA administrator Craig Fugate, the agency gave the go-ahead to 34 construction projects this month to rebuild basic infrastructure such as fire stations, school gymnasiums and libraries in vulnerable locales including Grand Isle and Cameron Parish.
FEMA approved the replacement projects after the 2005 hurricane season, but halted them last year when local agency officials became aware of a rule prohibiting new construction in high-velocity flood zones that are most prone to coastal flooding.
It was an issue of prudent federal spending in areas likely to suffer repeated flooding. But some feared the FEMA policy would have a chilling effect on the repopulation of coastal communities, if fire and ambulance buildings had to be rebuilt miles from the residents they served.
“They had a policy that was really going to prevent a lot of these communities from rebuilding and from being viable in the future,” Vitter, R-La., said last week. “If Grand Isle can’t have a fire station in Grand Isle, it can’t be a viable community.”
Vitter took heavy criticism from senators in both parties and the Obama administration for delaying Fugate’s FEMA confirmation less than a month before the start of hurricane season.
Vitter said he considered the issue one of “literally life or death for these coastal communities.”
FEMA’s initial announcement last week addressed the policy change, but did not go into specifics about which projects would be allowed to proceed inside the high-velocity flood zones, known as “V-zones.” Since then, FEMA has confirmed that all but five of the 36 projects can be rebuilt at the original locations in the flood zones.
That includes replacement of hangars at the New Orleans Lakefront Airport, a new school gymnasium and library in Grand Isle, and fire stations in Grand Isle, Cameron Parish and the Lake Catherine community in eastern New Orleans.
Many of the projects had already been designed, and local government agencies were miffed that FEMA had guided them through the initial phases for years only to tell them that new buildings had to be moved out of the V-zones.
Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle questioned why the federal government would award other subsidies to the town but refuse to rebuild vital facilities.
“We’re building our community back together, and all of a sudden the government says, ‘You can’t build the fire station,’ ” Camardelle said. “Well, hello, why did you give us the money to put our community back together in the first place?”
But he acknowledged an unintended consequence of Vitter’s prolonged political fight over the Fugate nomination.
“I think it was kind of a blessing,” he said. “According to Washington, D.C., Grand Isle’s on the map now.”
FEMA’s new policy allows for reconstruction in V-zones as long as the cost does not exceed 90 percent of what it would cost to replace the building entirely. Additionally, FEMA said it would begin reviewing how the issue affects rebuilding in Texas after Hurricane Ike.
Copyright 2009 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company