After Hurricane Katrina, all 124 New Orleans Public Schools remained closed for at least two months. Some still haven't reopened. At around 9 p.m., the electricity and phone went out. Florence Jumonville] went to bed at 11 p.m. and slept through the hurricane in the same room where she slept through Hurricane Katrina 40 years later. The deterioration of school buildings played a part in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. While flooding wrecked schools in the Lower Ninth Ward, Lakeview, Gentilly and eastern New Orleans, much of the damage was the result of deferred maintenance, said Pat Reilly, the district's director of facilities and construction and head of Alvarez & Marsal real estate advisory group.