“It’s frustrating to have your hands tied by so much red tape,” Wentzel said in a news release issued Monday.
Calling the flood the “worst natural disaster in its history,” Wentzel said the school district and the community would be much further down the road to recovery if not for the “bureaucratic obstacles that continue to delay that recovery and threaten our ability to provide a quality education for many.”
In a written response Tuesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said that Livingston officials have only themselves to blame.
“Unfortunately, the Livingston Parish school district has not provided the necessary detailed information for FEMA to develop appropriate project worksheets,” said Melissa Wilkins, a FEMA spokeswoman.
For damages sustained in the August 2016 floods, FEMA is reimbursing up to 90 percent of the repair costs — an increase from its customary flood reimbursement rate of 75 percent. But the agency requires those seeking the 90 percent rate catalog their damage in great detail, and the agency can be choosy about what it will and won’t pay for.
Nineteen Livingston Parish schools sustained flood damage in August 2016, nearly half the public schools in the parish, but only three schools are caught up in the current dispute: Denham Springs Elementary, Southside Elementary and Southside Junior High.
The three schools are operating out of temporary campuses until their main campuses are repaired. But 19 months after the flooding, it’s not clear when that will happen.
Wentzel said the school district has repeatedly submitted documents to FEMA detailing the damage to its schools as well as documenting the cost of recovery efforts but all to no avail.
“For example, we have cooperated with FEMA inspectors on numerous visits to each of the three campuses that remain closed — each time, we’ve gone through the same process and documented the same information, but still to date, we have no answers on these properties,” Wentzel said.
“The response we are getting is an injustice to our people, and frankly, is unacceptable,” he added. “This neglect — if it continues – will certainly begin to have an effect on the quality of education in our schools, the property values in our communities and the everyday lives of the people who have struggled so hard to recover.”
FEMA’s Wilkins gives a different account.
“In March 2017, FEMA received incomplete information on one campus, Denham Springs Elementary, and in May 2017, FEMA received incomplete information on two additional campuses, Southside Elementary and Southside Junior High,” Wilkins said.
The information Livingston has given FEMA has been too general, “room-by-room features, with only lump quantities and costs,” not the specifics the federal agency wants, such as information on “mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems and components,” Wilkins said.
Livingston has included costs and items, Wilkins said, that don't qualify for reimbursement, including improvements and “undamaged components.”
“As a result, FEMA cannot complete a full damage description or scope of work for the schools,” Wilkins said.
Livingston has also failed to provide “complete” information, Wilkins said, by the deadlines the federal agency has set.
Wentzel also raised another issue in his press release, a potential $20 million fine FEMA may assess against the school district for its failure to carry flood insurance on its buildings prior to August 2016.
Wentzel said he has reached out to the state’s congressional leaders for help in getting this federal requirement lifted, which Congress adopted after the 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Wentzel also sent a similar letter to Congress, giving it to an Ascension Parish delegation that is in Washington D.C. this week to voice complaints about the federal government’s flood response.
“We need our parents, our community leaders and all our residents to call our senators and congressional leaders and ask for their help,” he said. “We can’t continue to just tolerate the unresponsiveness of FEMA.”
FEMA’s Wilkins, however, said the agency’s hands are tied on the no-flood-insurance penalty issue.
“It would take an act of Congress to amend the Stafford Act to provide the same relief granted following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita,” Wilkins said.
Wentzel estimates that Livingston schools have spent more than $54 million since the flood, but to date, FEMA has only reimbursed approximately $21.6 million of those costs. FEMA said that more money is coming, specifically another $10.4 million has been “obligated” and will eventually reach Livingston.
Wentzel said Livingston has managed to stay financially afloat so far, but he worries about the future.
“If those funds are not reimbursed by the government, and the district suffers another disaster, we will not be able to financially manage it,” he said.
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