Waveland — Ground Zero, Still Standing

On August 29, 2005, the eye of Hurricane Katrina crossed directly over Waveland. The storm surge reached twenty-six feet. South of the railroad tracks, nearly everything was destroyed. State officials said Waveland took a harder hit from wind and water than any other town along the Gulf Coast. Approximately fifty people died. The Waveland Public Library was a total loss. The Ground Zero Hurricane Museum opened in 2013 in what had been the Waveland Civic and Cultural Center — the only public building left standing after the storm. Waveland Elementary School was so heavily damaged that students attended classes in portable buildings for the following school year. The town is the smallest, westernmost, and most exposed on the Mississippi Gulf Coast — in Hancock County, just east of the Louisiana border. The beachfront rebuilt without commercializing. It remains public and uncommercial, the quietest stretch of shoreline on the coast. Waveland was incorporated in 1972. It was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Camille in 1969 — recovery took nearly a decade. The town erected a plaque commemorating the volunteers who rebuilt it the first time. After Katrina, a group called the Rainbow Family ran a free café and clinic in a parking lot on Highway 90 from September to December 2005. Volunteer doctors and nurses saw over five thousand patients. The town of Wayland, Massachusetts, sent supplies, rebuilt homes, and restored parks. The two towns still share a bond. Andrew Jackson once owned land here on what is now Jackson Ridge, part of which later became Buccaneer State Park. As of the 2020 census, Waveland's population was 7,210.