Mayoral Visit - September 9-11
Waveland Mississippi Mayor Tommy Longo visited Wayland Massachusetts Sept. 10th to kick off the project. He was the featured speaker in a press conference hosted by the Wayland Board of Selectmen in the Town Building (covered by The Globe, Channel 7, NECN, The Crier, and others). He appeared with members of the Wayland to Waveland committee and many of the eight builders participating in the project. A handful of townspeople who volunteered last year in Waveland also spoke.
The $1.6M project is to build new homes for eight Waveland families who have been carefully selected by Wayland to Waveland and the City of Waveland and other agencies.
The new homes will be built during a 16-week project from October thru next February organized by the Wayland to Waveland Hurricane Katrina Relief Committee (“W2W”), a team of eight eastern Massachusetts premier home builders, and dozens of contracting firms and suppliers located throughout the Boston area.
The second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (August 29) finds Waveland still quite devastated, but slowly making a comeback, according to Mayor Longo. Approximately 60% of residents have returned to the city, although plenty are still living in FEMA trailers on their property. The schools are back in operation, also at about 60%. With so much property not being used, the city’s income from real estate taxes is down to 20% of the pre-storm level. On the other hand, sales tax revenue is back to near pre-Katrina levels and this is allowing the city to operate without having to borrow for day-to-day operational needs.
Federal funding is paying for massive reconstruction of the water and sewer infrastructure that is about 90% complete. Once that’s done, reconstruction can begin earnestly.
The Wayland to Waveland group’s project is an unprecedented effort to rebuild lives and a community mostly forgotten. Much attention has been given to New Orleans and other major metropolitan areas and ports. Tiny Waveland – the bulls-eye for Katrina – continues to struggle. It was hit by the hurricane’s eye which pushed up a 38-foot storm surge that with wave action resulted in a 50-foot high wall of water being pushed through the town wiping out most every structure.
Waveland Mayor Tommy Longo (second from left) talks with W2W Steering Committee members at a welcoming dinner Sunday evening (Sept. 9). He reports that two years after Katrina debris removal is still the major activity with more than 200 cubic tons carted per day. There are 150 homes still to be demolished, more than 1200 trees slated for removal.... and all this with only one-third the number of former town employees.
The project will put eight Waveland, Mississippi families into new homes early next year, courtesy of the Wayland to Waveland Hurricane Katrina Relief Committee (“W2W”), the team of eight Massachusetts premier home builders, and dozens of contracting firms and suppliers located throughout the Boston area.
It's just shortly after the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and Wayland to Waveland is launching this unprecedented effort to rebuild lives and a community that was featured on national television on the anniversary as both NBC news and CNN broadcast live from Waveland acknowledging the city's unfortunate status as the point at which H. Katrina crossed US soil first.
The builders have their plans ready, the eight lots in Waveland have been cleared and are having foundations set in advance of the crews arriving in October.