The morning Hurricane Katrina hit the Mississippi Coast, a group of police officers in the town of Waveland, Miss. nearly drowned. The water was rising rapidly over the one-story station house and they left through the windows, swimming to tree branches they could hold onto. They had already written their social security numbers on their arms in case their bodies needed to be identified.
The small town of Waveland, about 50 miles east of New Orleans, was dubbed ground zero by the media as Katrina’s northeast outer wall almost wiped it off the map. The first responders managed to hold on for several hours until the water receded, but 23 residents perished. More than 90 percent of homes in the town of about 9,000 were destroyed. The only building left standing on Coleman Avenue, the town’s main street, was the battered historic civic center. Even City Hall was gone, remnants of its colorful mural, dedicated to the memory of victims of Hurricane Camille in 1969, scattered amongst the mountains of debris.
Ten years later, after much hard work and dedication, Waveland is back in business. “We always had the resolve to build back, but it looked pretty grim for a while,” said Mayor Mike Smith, who was assistant fire chief during Katrina. “All our streets were unpassable, piled high with debris. Coleman Avenue was just dirt, mud and tents. We wouldn’t be here without FEMA.”
Waveland has seen its population rebound from its low point of 3,000 a few years after the storm to almost where it was before, currently at about 7,000.
Nearly $130 million in Public Assistance grants from FEMA paid for debris removal, road and bridge repair and other public infrastructure repair and rebuilding. “Public Assistance funds are very important to the recovery process,” said the mayor. “Everything from the railroad tracks down to the beach, about half a mile, and three miles east and west has brand new water lines, sewer lines, ditches and streets.”
With a FEMA grant of $1.3 million, the town’s beloved Tudor Revival Civic Center, formerly an elementary school in the 1920s, was the first facility on Coleman Avenue to be restored. Completed in 2009, it was also used as city council chambers until the City Hall and Municipal Annex was rebuilt in 2012 with a $2.3 million FEMA grant. For several years, city employees, including the police and fire departments, worked out of temporary facilities provided by FEMA and set up in a soccer field before moving into building space in a strip mall.
Other projects FEMA funded to help bring back Waveland were the public library, the town pier, which was rebuilt with concrete, and Veterans Memorial Park. Waveland officials were also able to obtain Community Development Block Grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and grants from other sources to help fund projects.
The new fire station is in the annex building next to City Hall. Both have been elevated to 23 feet above mean sea level.
In partnership with the state of Mississippi, FEMA provided hazard mitigation funding of $9.5 million, which went toward preventing damage from future storms, including drainage improvement, warning sirens and backup generators. “When we have another storm,” said Robert Latham, Executive Director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, “Waveland will be much better prepared.”
Video: Rebuilding in Waveland