Holy Ghost School Bruised But Recovering From Ida

As the fury of Hurricane Ida’s category 4 winds subsided, Holy Ghost School in Hammond principal Donna Wallette and her husband visited the school to assess the initial damage.

Although Hammond’s streets were strewn and often blocked by fallen trees, and damage was pervasive, at first glance the news was encouraging at Holy Ghost. 

“When you first see it you think ‘Oh my god it could have been so much worse,” Wallette said. “None of the trees fell onto the actual buildings.”

A day later, however, a far more somber reality began to settle in. All eight buildings on the school’s campus had sustained some form of damage. Water had seeped through leaky roofs and mildew was rapidly forming. 

Water that had backed up from a city drain flooded St. Dominic Hall. 

“Tuesday (Aug. 31) is when it really hit me and I saw the mildew,” Wallette said. “I knew if I did not have something done immediately it would be significantly worse.”

She immediately contacted the school’s insurance company and a day later a water damage restoration service was on site beginning the arduous process of drying out classrooms.

“They were pumping air and drying out every classroom,” Holy Ghost technology coordinator Will Bordelon, who spent many days alongside Wallette in cleaning out buildings and setting up new classrooms, said. 

The company also began to dry out Holy Ghost Church, which also sustained wind and water damage, to the extent that Mass is now being celebrated in the old church for the foreseeable future.

Perhaps most severely damaged was the old schoolhouse, which will likely be shelved for the remainder of the school year.

With no electricity and one of summer’s last gasps of oppressive heat, Wallette and several staff members gathered to map out a strategy for reopening the school as soon as possible. Merging creativity and practicality, classrooms were moved, closets and at least one workroom turned into de facto offices for teachers, and an office in the administrative building refitted for a classroom.

With a plan in place and the classrooms dried and remediation complete, progress was swift. Three weeks after the eye of Ida had swept through Tangipahoa Civil Parish, on Sept. 20 school doors were flung open to welcome an eager student body. 

“For the extent of the damage we had we probably should not have been able to open that quickly. Things just fell into place, and there always seemed to be a solution to the problem,” Bordelon said.

“God was with us,” Wallette said. “It was amazing that we were able to find places for everybody. I wanted everybody to feel like they had a place to work, their own place to hang their hat and feel comfortable and not displaced.

“People had to go home to that. How sad would that be if they would have to be displaced here and displaced when they go home.”

She said several faculty members had water in their homes or trees through their roofs, with one teacher having three trees land on her house. About 13 students have also been displaced.

Wallette said communication was a concern during those first few days following the storm, as she attempted to check on staff members. Although it took several days, she was relieved to learn everyone was safe.

Wallette said she was reluctant about approaching staff members to volunteer to assist in the cleanup because they were dealing with their own issues at home. 

“You knew they would come because this is an extension of their home,” third-grade teacher Cindy Wagner quickly said. 

Recovery has also presented several unique challenges, including the assigning of homework. Many areas remain off the technical grid so homework that requires the use of Wi-Fi cannot be assigned.

“That’s huge because our school is 1:1 iPads,” Wagner said. “We can’t rely on technology.”

Wallette pointed out the irony that during the COVID-19 pandemic, when virtual learning became the norm, schools had to become more tech savvy.

“All of a sudden we can’t use it,” she said with a wry smile.

As the one-month anniversary of Ida passed, blue tarps continue to decorate  buildings and scars of Ida’s path are present. But learning has resumed even in modified classrooms.

“You constantly assess where the children are and their needs and make sure you are teaching the standards and not making excuses,” Wallette said. “No excuses.”