Wayland to Waveland’s
‘Mission to Mississippi’
Letters from the Families
The Bourgeois Family
Dear Wayland to Waveland,
Hi! We are the Bourgeois family, Wally, Donna, Garrett, Brandon, and Cydney. We live in Waveland, Mississippi.
When we heard that Katrina was coming our way, we made plans to stay at NASA/Stennis Space Center, in my father’s office, along with my father and sister. We went there late Sunday, August 28th. I don’t know if any of us got much sleep. Wespent the night watching the weather reports and visiting with other NASA employees and their families. Once daylight arrived, we watched the storm happening from a second floor wall of windows. It was like watching a silent movie. You could see the wind beating the trees to the ground, but we couldn’t hear it. We saw car windows being blown out, large branches flying around, and trees hitting the ground. A tornado hit the building, taking the roof off of the third floor above us. All of the windows were sucked open and the ceiling tiles were sucked out of the office we were sitting in. Water began to pour through our ceilings. We were moved to a different part of the building and rode the rest of the storm out there.
The Bourgeois FamilyMy Dad’s boss came in around 3:30 and told us that Waveland was gone. My Dad and Wally tried to get into town, but the highway was still under water. Tuesday, August 30th, we rode into Waveland about 7:00 am. We were amazed and shocked at what we were seeing. We tried to drive to my mom’s house, but couldn’t get down the roads. We parked and walked a few miles to get there. Even as we walked over 12-15 feet deep piles of parts of roof’s and 2x4’s, dishes, coffee tables, and every other household item, we kept walking toward the beach to get to my mom’s. We knew there would be
nothing left. It was a slab, with part of the chimney stack laying in the backyard, and the red kitchen sink lying upside down on the slab. We continued to walk about 2 miles down the beach road to Coleman Avenue, to check on our building. Even as we walked up the street, we just knew the building would be there. It wasn’t in a flood zone, and had been built by Wally’s grandfather in the thirties. It had made it through many hurricanes. As we walked up Coleman, we saw someone raising the United States Flag up the flag pole in front of where City Hall used to be. As we got close, we realized it was Brian Mollere, who had lived next door. His house, our building, and the rest of Coleman Avenue were no longer there. They were just slabs, like everything else on the first block or so from the beach. We checked on Wally’s brother’s home a couple of blocks away, and it was also gone. Then we went back to my Dad’s house. We thought it would be fine, being a few miles from the beach. However, when we got there, we saw about 28 trees laying all over his yard. We couldn’t even see the house. As we worked out way through the mess, we found his house had not one tree to land on it. They were lying right up against it though. We also found that he had about two feet of water in the house, and five feet in the garage.
We spent the next few weeks looking for keepsakes or other things to salvage from the debris. Then we began to gut my Dad’s house. We spent the next month and a half living at NASA. We spent 11 months helping my Dad rebuild, then we moved in with him.
My principal at Waveland Elementary suggested I contact Wayland to Waveland. When I spoke with Cindy, it was just too good to be true. I think We are still in shock about being able to move our family into our own home in such a short amount of time. Working with the guys, and Pam, that were down during the Christmas and New Years holidays was really great. Wally and I both enjoy doing this kind of work, and the people that we have met are the greatest. We are so thankful that the people of Massachusetts have such generous hearts. Thank you to everyone who has given to our community.
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