Local emergency officials learned preparedness lessons helping Waveland after Katrina

Ten years after Hurricane Katrina devastated Waveland on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, lessons learned from Katrina have helped the Grand Strand better prepare for the inevitable weather disaster.

For years, Randy Webster, director of Horry County Emergency Management, has cited potential complacency as one of his major concerns, along with the fact that many more people live in the area than at the time of the most recent evacuation 11 years ago.

Webster and his colleagues use any approaching storm, such as Erica, for “re-energizing prepared, dusting off the playbook.” As Erica formed in the Bahamas, forecasters had at least three models predicting what the storm might do. One of the models anticipated landfall in South Carolina; another suggested Florida and a third placed Erica’s path in the Atlantic Ocean.

At about this time 10 years ago, the area began receiving its first Katrina refugees. Soon Horry County would adopt Waveland, where few buildings stood after Katrina slammed into the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Public workers, volunteers from churches and service clubs sent money and food to help. In 2007, then-Waveland Mayor Tommy Longo told The Sun News, “The support from sister cities and faith-based organizations around the country has been the answer to our prayers. South Carolina has done more than its share.”

Waveland and Bay St. Louis are in the Gulfport-Biloxi Metropolitan Statistical Area of the U.S. Census Bureau. Wakeland’s business district was destroyed by Hurricane Camile in 1969, was revitalized and again destroyed by Katrina. According to the city’s website, a concrete pier now extends 860 feet into the Bay of St. Louis, replacing the wooden pier taken out by Katrina.

Historically, many residents of New Orleans, La., had beach homes in Waveland and prior to Katrina, few lots were available to build on. Now new beach homes are being built. The Ground Zero Hurricane Museum has opened in the Waveland Civic Center, the only building on Coleman Avenue that survived Katrina.

A new City Hall has been dedicated. The New Waveland Library, renovated in 1999 and lost to Katrina, has been replaced by a brick building, completed in 2010. Mayor Mike Smith, who was assistant fire chief in 2005, says all city buildings have been replaced except the police headquarters and that is under construction. Smith became fire chief and was elected mayor in December 2014.

The city lost many residents. “We have back 6,400 of the 8,000 residents at the time of Katrina,” Smith said. Asked about how Waveland folks are coping 10 years after Katrina, Smith said “the people who stayed are resilient people.”

After Katrina, Webster made several trips from Horry County to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and “we came back with lessons learned and made changes in how we do business,” he said last week. “We are able to maintain a real good preparedness posture.”

The Area Recovery Council of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce also learned and fine-tuned their plans based on Waveland’s experience. In a report after visiting Waveland, Brad Dean of the Chamber was quoted: “We only thought we knew what recovery meant until we went to the Gulf Coast.”

Webster says: “People do need to understand that we live in a hurricane (and other weather)-prone area.”

Hurricanes that pass Horry and Georgetown counties generate collective sighs of relief; but unfortunately add to the complacent attitudes of many residents. Every storm that misses the Grand Strand is all the more reason to step up preparedness for the inevitable one that will hit here.

This story was originally published August 29, 2015 at 2:09 PM with the headline "Local emergency officials learned preparedness lessons helping Waveland after Katrina."