BATON ROUGE, La. –Livingston Parish school campuses have reopened for students and teachers with the help of a $17.5 million FEMA grant.

The grant paid for work to eliminate health and safety hazards so thousands of Livingston Parish students could return to school. Damage from August’s floods forced parish schools to close for a month. Work included removing wet floors, walls and contents and other mold elimination measures like drying and cleaning.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Students returned to the following 11 refurbished Livingston Parish school campuses: Doyle Elementary, Holden School, Springfield Elementary, Denham Springs Junior High, Freshwater Elementary, Northside Elementary, Lewis Vincent Elementary, Seventh Ward Elementary, Walker Freshman High, Westside Junior High and Live Oak High.

The funding also assisted the following five campuses where more recovery work remains before they reopen: Denham Springs Elementary, Denham Springs Freshman High, Denham Springs High, Southside Elementary and Southside Junior High.

The $17.5 million came from FEMA’s Public Assistance (PA) program. The program helps to repair or replace critical infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, public buildings and schools. PA also helps certain private nonprofit organizations.

FEMA typically reimburses 75 percent of eligible PA expenses. However, FEMA will reimburse applicants 90 percent of eligible PA expenses given the magnitude of the August floods.