Four of Eight Homes Framed During Week One
of ‘Mission to Mississippi’
Hurricane Katrina Relief;
Work Started on Next Four in Waveland, MS!
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OCT. 22, 2007 – WAYLAND, MA – Four of eight new homes in Waveland, MS are framed with windows installed as week two begins for “Mission to Mississippi,” the unprecedented Katrina rebuilding project produced by Wayland to Waveland.
The Massachusetts group kicked off its 16-week construction phase making incredible progress despite losing part of a day to violent weather. More than two dozen framers and another dozen support people worked 11-hour days at the Combel Street site where there are four homes being built.
Work started Tuesday at about noon after the crews flew from Boston to Gulfport and were driven to the site along the coastal roads which show how little has been rebuilt. By mid-day Saturday some of the crew were dispatched to Maple and Taranto Streets to get started on the base framing of the four houses there, two on each street that are nearly back to back to each. These sites are only about a mile from the Combel Street site.
All the action has unfolded before three security cameras that are available live right here! Some back in Wayland have called watching the progress “addicting,” unable to turn from it as these houses went up in days where previously there had been brush, then stubby foundation piers.
Wayland to Waveland Steering Committee members Cindy Lombardo and Kathie Steinberg are on site for the project’s start. Cindy is directing logistics (food, hotel, transportation) and Kathie is working with Waveland officials to finalize the choice of families to get these eight new homes while also pitching in on the work sites. Cindy has been filing daily progress reports with some photos for the Web site.
Week Two Begins
As week two starts, a large number of volunteers will be coming to Waveland from a partner group called “Rebuilding Together New England” that draws from Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Rebuilding Together is working at several locations along the Gulf Coast. They are dedicating this week to focusing on helping Waveland, sending workers to help with the eight house sites that are part of Mission to Mississippi as well as to work on a previous Wayland to Waveland projects rebuilding Ms. Hazel Tracey’s house. Ms. Hazel moved back into her house this summer, but still has not had floor coverings which arrived Friday and will be installed this week by these volunteers.