Hurricane Katrina severely damaged fire stations across New Orleans. Before substantial repairs could be made in the wake of the storm, FEMA had to survey every affected station in the city, complete a comprehensive damage report, and prepare an estimate for repairs. The City of New Orleans asked NANO to conduct a parallel survey confirming FEMA’s findings and oversee the needed updates to 12 of the city’s most essential stations.
The work required exhaustive documentation and thorough organization. Leveraging our extensive expertise with historic structures and New Orleans building codes, we completed our independent audit. We worked closely with national and local agencies to get the city full and fair compensation for the repairs and equip the first responders with the resources they needed.
Project Team
- Ian Dreyer
- Kristine Kobila
- Sam LeBlanc
- Ana Chu
This undertaking, along with NANO’s work restoring the New Orleans Fire Department Headquarters, has played a vital role in restoring the city’s essential services. We feel privileged to help protect the men and women who have pledged to protect us.
Every station had different problems, requiring a meticulous review of each building, looking beyond the obvious flood damage compounded by the passing of time to understand the damage to the buildings’ structural and mechanical systems. Further complicating things, ersatz repairs were completed in many locations to get the stations operational and protect the city while FEMA completed their surveys.
In addition to auditing FEMA’s findings and preparing the necessary drawings, NANO also developed several alternate schemes and additional improvements the city could follow up on as resources become available. We then figured out the most efficient way to permit the work and phase the restorations. Because the stations had to close while renovations were completed, we identified a sequence of work that allowed us to make the needed updates to stations across the city while ensuring that every community continued to be protected.
