Progress is well underway on Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club’s flood mitigation project
25th November 2024 · 0 Comments
By John Gray
Contributing Writer
(Veritenews.org) — Progress is finally underway on a construction project years in the making that will lift the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club’s headquarters to help prevent it from flooding during strong storms.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency helped fund the project in 2020 with a $340,000 grant to prevent future flood damage. At the time, the city of New Orleans said the grant marked the first time the city had secured such money to raise a non-residential building Darren Mire, the club’s director of public relations, told Verite News that the building will be raised by approximately three feet.
Elroy James, president of the social club, said the elevation work was a part of a pilot program to bring flood assistance to nonprofit organizations. The building at 732 N. Broad Street, which acts as a clubhouse for the organization, has been flooded on average once a year since Hurricane Katrina, according to Mire.
“[It] has been designated by FEMA and the city of New Orleans as a repetitive lost property because of the number of claims that have been filed on that particular property,” James said. “And so the city of New Orleans and FEMA reached out to the organization in 2019 about participating in the pilot program where they would help nonprofits owners with elevating the property with the hopes of preventing the reoccurring losses that as a result of flood waters. So that’s how it started, and that’s why we’re doing it.”
James and Mire said that flooding has been a major inconvenience, causing loss of bar inventory and temporarily displacing the operations of the organization. Beyond physical damage, members of the club say the flooding has had a lasting effect on morale.
“We’ve had numerous floods that have impacted the club and takes away from not only the business, but it takes away from the social environment,” said James Ross, a member of Zulu since 2012.
Blair Condoll, a member since 2017, explained how important the clubhouse is to members. He described it as “the heartbeat” of the Zulu community.
“We count on that space to come together on the weekends, during the week, and it’s just a great space for us for so many reasons,” Condoll said. “And I think that when we are unable to access the space, due to flooding, it takes away from our quality of life.”
Zulu worked with the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (NOHSEP) to apply for funding from FEMA in 2018. Notice of award was given in late 2020, according to Austin Feldbaum, director of hazard mitigation at NOSHEP. He said the project was delayed due to the clubhouse’s historic status and the need to have changes to the building approved by the club’s board of directors.
“Because this building is individually registered as a historic building, it had to go through an additional design review process with both FEMA and the State Historic Preservation Office,” Feldbaum told Verite News.
“This is the first time that we’ve done an elevation project with an organization as a board to make decisions,” Feldbaum said. “And so that added some time when the board had to vote on signing contracts [and] things like that. That added a little bit of time compared to a private individual homeowner, for example.”
NOSHEP has yet to find another non-residential building to do more mitigation work on, but they are actively seeking more businesses to work with in the future.
“We are still in talks with the Planning Commission and Office of Economic Development around our joint interest in trying to do some targeted outreach and see if we can’t get more of these Main Street district commercial properties mitigated against water,” Feldbaum said.
James told Verite News that the club hopes to have the work completed by March 4, 2025, or Mardi Gras Day. “That’s what we’re working, aggressively working towards,” James said.
But Ross isn’t fully confident in that timeline because of delays caused by end-of-year holidays and the Super Bowl.
“I don’t think they’re going to make that date, but prove me wrong,” Ross said. “I want to be wrong on that.”
This article originally published in the November 25, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
Tags: New Orleans, Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club
