WBRZ - Baton Rouge

NEW ORLEANS - Baptist ministers plan to open a health clinic in the Lower 9th Ward on the site of a former Roman Catholic boys' school that moved to another part of the city after Hurricane Katrina.

The Times-Picayune reports Holy Cross School has sold and donated a portion of its former campus to New Orleans Baptist Ministries, which plans to open a health clinic there by the end of the year.

"The health clinic is really, really needed in the Lower 9," said Charles DiGange, the headmaster of the Holy Cross school. He said it would be "a good fit for the neighborhood."

The Lower 9th Ward was wiped out when floodwalls protecting it collapsed during Katrina's assault, causing widespread flooding and death in the neighborhood which has struggled to recover.