Sign up to receive information about upcoming
articles and other information
about Traditional
Masonry.
Disaster funding to the rescue
by Amy Johnson Federal grant helps save historic building after hurricane
The town of Waveland, Miss., was in the direct path of Hurricane Katrina when the storm made its second landfall on Aug. 29, 2005. After the 125-mile-per-hour winds died down, the rain stopped, and the storm surge receded, only one building in Waveland’s historic downtown was still standing: the former Waveland School.
And “standing” is a relative term. According to engineer Patrick Sparks, it means in this case that the structural frame did not completely collapse. The southeast corner of the brick building was crushed, and the other walls had been battered by debris during the three or four hours they were virtually underwater. The brick foundation piers were twisted and toppled by scouring water, leaving interior walls vulnerable. But the building still stood, alone, among the ruins of two-dozen commercial buildings and numerous homes that had once graced the three-block downtown district.
The scope of the destruction — 560 out of 576 homes on the National Register of Historic Places were wiped out — and the difficulties of knowing where to start and how to find funding meant that the building stood unaided for two years before stabilization and restoration work began.
But thanks to concerned citizens, preservation professionals and a unique federal grant program, the building is now stabilized, and plans are moving forward for a complete renovation.
Ironically, this is the building’s second new beginning. It served as a school from 1927 until 1991. Repurposed to become the Waveland Civic Center, its first phase of restoration was completed in 2000. With funding finally in place for Phase II, planning got underway in August 2005 — just days before everything changed.
In the weeks and months following Katrina, efforts to evaluate and identify what could be preserved were overwhelmed by the need to provide shelter and obtain emergency funding. Homes declared more than 50 percent destroyed were demolished so their owners could collect insurance to rebuild when slower inspections might have revealed that the original structural elements were still sound. “Some people couldn’t hold out,” says Chelius Carter, director of the Gulf Coast Field Office for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH). He believes more structures could have been saved. “They were pushed to make decisions in days that they needed months to make. We’ve quit fighting demolitions down here — we’re too overwhelmed. The need is vast — it seems never-ending.”
“There’s been lots of progress,” says Alan Ramsay, a contractor specializing in historic preservation, “but if you came and saw it for the first time now, you would think the storm had just hit a couple of months ago, not two years ago.”
Through all this, the importance of the Waveland Civic Center as a community rallying point and connection to the past grew. And hope for its future grew too, when the U.S. Congress approved funds for the Hurricane Relief Grant Program for Historic Preservation to be administered by the National Park Service. The Park Service relied on state agencies like MDAH to award grants, most of which were for tens of thousands of dollars.
Finally, work could start again on the Waveland Civic Center. The first order of business was to stabilize the standing walls and remove the debris. A gable roof added in 1985 had compounded the damage by catching the wind-load from the beach, resulting in the south wing’s collapse. This addition was removed.
Then Ramsay’s firm, Historic Renovations of Yazoo Inc., based in Yazoo City, Miss., began saving what could be salvaged. They sifted through all the bricks in the fallen sections and rescued any whole bricks they could find. Then they applied “good old-fashioned elbow grease,” according to Ramsay. “We chiseled the bricks from the collapsed wall sections and then chiseled away the old mortar. There was no secret to it except keeping a sharp edge on the masonry hammer.” After two weeks they had salvaged about 5,000 of the building’s original bricks. The company also saved and repaired as much of the original wood millwork, flooring and joists as they could. “There is not a lot left, so what there is, is precious,” Ramsay says.
The salvaged bricks are a piece of history. “Brick is a local building material because the coastal plains here at the base of the Mississippi have a lot of clay,” says the project’s architect, Allison Anderson of Unabridged Architecture, Bay St. Louis, Miss. “Masonry performs really well in this climate. So it seems appropriate to me that we try to find salvaged bricks to complete this project. Sustainability requires that we go back to those old ways. Historic preservation is a form of sustainability.” While most buildings on the coast were constructed of wood, plentiful in the region, they were based on brick foundations, piers and pilings.
With the building stable, the next step will be to reinforce the double-wythe brick walls. “It is actually a very lightly constructed building,” says Patrick Sparks, president of Sparks Engineering Inc., of Round Rock, Texas. “It is unusual for two-wythe masonry to be load-bearing, so I was surprised it survived. We don’t really know why it did — it was hit very hard by the storm.”
The plan is to make the masonry storm-resistant by strengthening it with three-inch-square vertical tubes bolted to the wall every four feet. Corroded iron straps that connected the interior framing to the masonry walls will be replaced with stainless steel. The fractured concrete parapet cap tying the walls together will be replaced with reinforced concrete.
The foundation will be protected by a scour barrier, a concrete-filled trench that will prevent storm water from undermining the soft dirt and sand around the brick foundation piers. There will also be a smaller trench with concrete blocks backfilled with concrete to create a ledger wall to support the floor joints. Then, because the building will be air-conditioned for the first time, an elastomeric coating will be applied to provide a moisture barrier while restoring the original look of painted brick.
When the Civic Center is complete it will serve as the heart of the community until municipal buildings can be constructed. Trailers that house Waveland’s local government are now housed on the soccer field next to the old school.
Soon, the big auditorium will once again be the stage for making memories: hosting plays, receptions, alumni gatherings and community meetings. “We celebrated our wedding anniversary in that building,” says alderman Ricky Geoffrey. “Things like that happened there. This building is the only one we’ve got left there now. It is important that we try to keep it.”
Steps to take when disaster strikes
Protection of life and shelter are obviously top priorities in the aftermath of a disaster. But once those are managed, some simple steps can prevent further damage to historic structures and start the process of repair and restoration.
- First, stabilize the structure with temporary measures as much as possible. Many buildings in the path of Hurricane Katrina suffered additional injury because they were left open to the elements. A temporary roof membrane can help protect exposed interiors and prevent the degradation of wood and finishes. Temporary external supports or netting can help hold a wall together until it can be stabilized. These and other measures should be reversible so they do not impede later restoration efforts.
- If possible, slow down the rebuilding momentum. Things may not be as bad as they look. Old structures often have later additions that are not as sturdy as the original. Some homes on the Mississippi coast were declared uninhabitable — more than 50 percent damaged — and demolished because the additions were destroyed, even though the original historic part of the structure could have been repaired. Chelius Carter of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History reports that other homes were demolished because they were blown off their piers, even though their heavy timber frames were still sound.
- If you have the means to begin renovation, protect your eligibility for later potential grants by following the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.
-
Generally speaking, there are no specific funds earmarked for rehabilitating historic properties after natural disasters. So sometimes the best approach is to look for funding for historic preservation and restoration. The best place to start is your State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). They will know if any special funds have been established relative to a specific disaster, and they may have ongoing programs for preservation or rehabilitation.
- Don’t overlook tax incentives for restoration. The Internal Revenue Service allows a tax credit for rehabilitation of buildings that meet certain requirements (see Form 3468, Investment Credit). SHPOs help administer these restoration tax credits.
Funding assistance may be available through the National Trust for Historic Preservation and its National Preservation Endowment.
- Finally, historic homes and businesses are eligible for the same FEMA assistance as any other home or business after a disaster is declared. In addition, Public Assistance grants are available for the repair, replacement or restoration of publicly owned infrastructure and certain private nonprofit buildings. FEMA also offers assistance through the Pre-Disaster Mitigation grant program, which can help reduce or even prevent damage to historic structures during a disaster.
Preservationists are resourceful in finding funding during normal times, and these same skills (and the same sources) can serve them well after disaster strikes.
