Fire chiefs hire lawyers to work with insurance, FEMA to speed up rebuilding after Ida

Fire Chiefs are hiring attorneys to navigate getting fire stations rebuilt as insurance companies and FEMA squabble over values of structures.

Fire Chiefs Devon Dedon of Lafourche District 3 and Marty Thibodeaux of Little Caillou Fire Department had to obtain legal representation to get their fire stations rebuilt. Both departments have already adjusted to the lack of the station and kept response times the same as those of pre-storm. In South Lafourche, five stations are nearly repaired, while five others sit vacant. Little Caillou Fire Department had two stations destroyed and both have been torn down and are on track to be replaced.

In South Lafourche, five derelict fire stations remain untouched as the department awaits preapproval from FEMA to tear down unusable structures. Dedon fears the debris could become a danger during high winds if they remain standing by hurricane season. If the department tears the structure down before receiving the green light from FEMA it could forego any potential funds the agency could provide.

"It's our hope that FEMA allows us to tear these stations down, the ones that are totaled, before hurricane season (because) we don't want to have to deal with flying debris," Dedon said.

The five stations are Leeville Fire Station, South Golden Meadow, Fire Central, Bell Amie, and West Cut Off. The value of the structures provided by adjusters, versus the price it will cost once it goes out to bid don't match up. For example, FEMA offered $400,000 for South Golden Meadow, but Dedon said it will cost at least over $1 million to rebuild.

"$400,000 can't touch it," he said. "Insurance is going to need to give us a little more money to help cover some of the costs, but these totaled stations, even with the insurance money, it's not going to be enough."

Five other stations within the district are under repair, and the price tag has risen as more damage has been found during the repair process. These stations include Port Fourchon, East Galiano, North Galiano, and East and West Larose. The total cost of these was estimated at about $800,000, but with the new damage found it has increased to about $1 million.

"So once they start tearing into this, they notice 'hey, the water got into the walls and we really need to take this wall out also,'" he said. "So they couldn't see it from the outside but once they started working they found more damages, that's why it drove the price up."

Repairs on these five should be complete within the next month to month-and-a-half said Dedon. The process for repairs under FEMA differs according to the amount of damage. have a more streamlined process than rebuilding under FEMA. If a structure receives less than 50% of its value in damage, repairs can be done to put the structure back as it was. If the damage exceeds 50%, it can be demolished and rebuilt. A rebuilt structure has to be brought up to current codes and standards, so the new plan has to be approved at each step of the process.

In December of last year, Thibodeaux told the Houma Courier/Daily Comet that the Terrebonne Parish Attorney Jules P. Hebert had stepped in to help with a similar issue. Since that time the insurance companies have paid out.

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Hurricane Ida destroyed both Fire Station 1, at 4588 La. 56, and Fire Station 4 at 6886 La. 56. Both have been torn down. Thibodeaux said a temporary station is being erected on the corner of Bayouside Dr. and Klondyke Road to replace Fire Station 1 until the new station is done. The temporary structure will be complete within the next few weeks.

It shares a site with a larger project being created between the Terrebonne Parish Library System and the Rec. District 7.

"We're not going to be doing a whole lot with it, we'll probably have a camper on the back side of it," he said. "The building itself is just going to be a very simple metal building with four walls. We're not getting crazy or anything, just a very simple building that can last us a year-and-a-half or so until we can get construction to the new station 1."

A representative from FEMA Region 6 said the new station should be complete by the summer of 2024.

Thibodeaux expects the money that insurance companies paid out should be able to cover the entire cost of rebuilding Station 4. If he can get that rebuilt without getting FEMA involved he said he will because the process is much quicker without their involvement.

"We're probably going to lift the property about two-foot and build back a metal building - metal inside and metal outside - just a galvanized construction," he said. "We are just going to build it to where it will be easy, but also simple to insure."

He said the department considered something nicer, but was conscious of the price to insure a new building. The department has a separate small building next to the site that was damaged by Ida. They plan to operate out of that building and use the station only to house the vehicles.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Lawyering up: Fire chiefs hire attorneys to get stations rebuilt