‘Mission to Mississippi’
Starts Week Five
with Plumbers, Electricians
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NOV. 14, 2007 – WAYLAND, MA – Plumbers and electricians pounced on the Combel Street homes as they arrived yesterday to begin the interior work – right on schedule, we might add.
The eight homes in Waveland, MS now are fully finished outside as railings went on the decks and stairs went on around the houses as the last steps before the week four crews departed on Monday.
The unprecedented home building project by Wayland to Waveland Hurricane Katrina Relief and its cadre of eight home builders is right on schedule.
In Wayland this week is Kathy Pinn (read recent letter from Kathy), a woman who retired to Waveland shortly before Katrina and set up a small business in the heart of the city’s lively oceanside center. Wayland to Waveland has known her from the get-go as she became a special assistant to Mayor Tommy Longo and worked very hard for over a year to help the city recover. She’s now focused on rebuilding her business, but is an accurate barometer of what’s happening to people there. She will be visiting the Boston area to speak to various groups including one in Newton on Thursday night.
Pinn of Waveland, MS visited the Boston area to help in the effort, speaking at a presentations along with lead builder Ken Vona of Kenneth Vona Construction of Waltham.
Pinn (below) spoke passionately about her adoration of her adopted home town of Waveland. She had moved there more than a dozen years ago to retire. She owned an artisan gift store (with apartment above) on the once famed Coleman Ave. downtown stretch in Waveland. It was her retirement dream situation. She evacuated well inland at the storm warning, but never dreamt such complete destruction was possible… some flooding on the first floor, she expected, but not a 50-foot-tall wall of water rushing in and then out reducing everything to rubble.
Kathy Pinn of Waveland, MS – who helpled get Wayland to Waveland involved with helping the southern city from the early days after Katrina – speaks to donors at a recent event in Newton.
Her entire business and personal belongings were crushed and scattered by H. Katrina’s storm surge. In the aftermath Pinn immediately went to work for the city and was Wayland to Waveland’s link to providing help and moral support. She has since become quite the friend and conduit, continuing to help the flow of aid to her chosen hometown.
“If it hadn’t been for Kathy (Pinn),” said Wayland to Waveland Co-Chair Cindy Lombardo, “we might never have gotten so involved. We very well might have stopped after one project,” she added. Of course, W2W has already produced several projects and is truly locked in for the long haul, Lombardo confirmed.
Pinn has provided unique perspective for Wayland to Waveland’s steering committee, helping the group understand what is needed and how to approach things in the obviously needy but less-obviously fragile community that is Waveland. It’s impossible to imagine how people there feel. Pinn herself has gone through many of the emotions people there face in the aftermath of such a traumatic event.
Ken Vona of Kenneth Vona Construction explains the Katrina storm surge to potential donors in Newton, MA last week.
Collectively, the city is exhibiting various forms of depression including post-traumatic stress, survivor’s guilt, and general anxiety over what the future will bring. The city’s main “industry” was tourism as people swarmed to the state park that anchors one end of the miles-long stretch of glorious beachfront. The town’s former downtown was surrounded by communities of vacation homes, shops and restaurants – all now leveled and cleared.
Help will be needed in Waveland and throughout the Gulf Coast for years to come. Vona has estimated that it will take 12-16 or more years to rebuild the thousands of homes and businesses at the current rate of construction there. People who finally have insurance monies or state/federal grant monies are having a hard time finding trustworthy and qualified builders and tradespeople. The Mission to Mississippi crews have been able, in some cases, to help neighbors of the current projects with tasks such as roofing installation.
At Special Town Meeting in Wayland last week, article one approved a resolution praising Wayland to Waveland and encouraging residents to support the town-endorsed effort. Cindy Lombardo made a brief presentation during which she read the entire letter from one of the home recipients – a very moving piece. You can read all the family letters here online.