Waveland, MS
Thurmont, MD
connected by Katrina 

BY JAMES RADA JR.
Thurmont News Editor

THURMONT, Md. – Kathy Pinn of Waveland, Miss., was living the American Dream. She and her husband had purchased the old Waveland Drug Store in downtown Waveland. They renovated the building and opened That Cute Little Shoppe located on Coleman Avenue near the Gulf of Mexico.

“We thought we had our retirement set,” Pinn said. “We sold antiques and gifts in the store and lived above the shop. Everything was great.”

Then on Aug. 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina arrived. When it left, it took much of Waveland with it.

“Our entire town was wiped out,” Pinn said. “Every public structure was destroyed and the infrastructure was destroyed.”

She said Waveland could be divided into two areas, above and below the railroad tracks. “Only a handful of houses survived below the tracks and everything above the tracks was damaged and flooded. The area north of the tracks had never flooded before,” Pinn said.

According to Pinn, the only area that stood the hurricane well was the water treatment plant. Many people, including the mayor and his family, took refuge there during the hurricane. When the fire department flooded, the firefighters also came there.

“When the police department flooded north of town, the police clung to their lives clinging to a bush in front of their building,” Pinn said.

Pinn and her husband found a hotel room 265 miles away in Montgomery, Ala.

“For three days, we sat in that hotel room waiting to see if there was a Waveland,” Pinn said.

She said many people stayed in the town because they didn’t believe they were in danger. Hurricane Camille, the 1969 category five hurricane, had winds of 190 miles per hour and 25-foot storm surges. Katrina only had winds of 175 miles per hour, but the storm surges in Waveland were 30 feet high and more.

When the Pinns returned to their home and business, it wasn’t there.

Monique LeCompte and her family returned to their home in Waveland a couple of weeks after the hurricane. They, too, found nothing where their home had been.

“We were speechless,” LeCompte said. “It was unbelievable. I was numb. All I could do was cry.”

They began to look around their property and found a few remnants of their life. Plates that were amazingly unbroken. Their first wedding anniversary ornament. Silverware.

“It’s amazing that the whole house can be wiped out and these fragile things could still be unbroken,” LeCompte said.

She said she was considering creating a Katrina shelf in the curio cabinet in her new home, wherever it might be.

Following the hurricane, help began to pour into Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama from all over the country. Among the helpers were citizens from Thurmont led by Margaret Kinnaird.

“She’s been a blessing to us,” LeCompte said. “She brought down a truckload of things to us and the teachers.”

Thurmont adopted Waveland and has offered a multitude of help over the past year. The Kinnairds drove a truck of food and supplies to Waveland in November 2005. They also adopted two families for Project Santa.

LeCompte said her family received a large box from the Kinnairds a few days before Christmas, which helped make Christmas wonderful for their first-grade daughter Abigail.

“We were crying when we opened the box,” LeCompte said. “We kept opening these nice gifts and more stuff just kept coming out of the box. We couldn’t believe that people who didn’t know us would go to the trouble of making sure we had a Christmas.”

Among other residents who helped out were Del and Nancy Trout who drove a truck of Little League helmets and catchers’ equipment to Waveland so that 300 kids could have a baseball season. Larry Finegan of Emmitsburg drove a truck of supplies to the area in December. Sheila Andrew of Rocky Ridge and her sister took supplies down in April. Marcia Johnson participated in Project Santa, adopting a family. She also met up with the family over the Easter holidays.

“Our elementary schools sent down a lot of school supplies and our committee sent down things they said they needed,” Kinnaird said.

These supplies included shelving, bookcases, rulers and printer paper. The Thurmont volunteers also sent toasters, irons and heating towers to the teachers. Hillside Turkey Farms sent smoked turkey breasts and chickens to all the teachers and staff at the school for Thanksgiving. The Waveland town office received a computer and printers. Thurmont Ambulance Company will be donating a 1998 ambulance with less than 100,000 miles on it to Waveland by the end of the year.

“I know they’re going to be years and years and years getting back on their feet and hopefully we’ll be able to help out with some other stuff,” Kinnaird said.

Prior to Katrina, Waveland had a population of almost 8,000. Now, a year later, Pinn estimates that only about 40 percent of them have returned and half of those are still living in FEMA trailers.

LeCompte and her family are living with her parents in Metairie, La. She said they probably won’t rebuild their home near the beach and she’ll miss it.

“All we have now is just a slab,” LeCompte said. “I don’t think we could afford to live there even if we could find someone who would insure us.”

LeCompte said it is weird to visit the site of her former home and look out over the calm water and sunny skies. “It’s so beautiful here,” she said. “It’s hard to imagine it could change so much and do something so vicious.”