Merchants recovering from Turtle Creek Mall flooding

By Shannon Meadows
After Katrina Newswire

HATTIESBURG — Turtle Creek Mall employees returned to work, expecting to add some normalcy to their lives after Hurricane Katrina; instead, they found their workplace a flooded, mildewed mess.

The mall sustained water damage when the roof of Dillard’s department store collapsed from Hurricane Katrina’s torrents of 145 mph wind and rain.

The mall roof leaked over Dillard’s store roof for the duration of the hurricane, leaving a small lake of standing water on the store’s roof.  The weak, soggy roof eventually collapsed, flooding several other stores in the mall.

Pac Sun, a new attraction to the mall that sells surfer-inspired clothing, suffered extensive damage from the hurricane and the water flooding from Dillard’s.

Bethany Lott, 21, store manager at Pac Sun, has been coping with the effects of the flooding.  “The mall was flooded with about six inches of water,” said Lott.  “I went inside the first day the mall reopened and saw squishy ceiling tiles everywhere above me. The smell of mildew was almost suffocating,” she said.

Pac Sun suffered extensive water damage to its ceiling tiles, baseboards, walls and merchandise.  In the dressing rooms, water seeped behind the walls and soaked into the sheetrock.  Repair crews had to tear off the vinyl wallpaper in the rooms, tear out the sheetrock and start building the walls from scratch.

They also had to replace all the baseboards. Repair crews cut large holes in the walls and put in dehumidifiers to help the walls dry out faster.  Once they were dry, the walls received new sheetrock and new wallpaper as well.  Luckily, the concret floor of Pac Sun was not damaged.

Lott estimated that approximately $20,000 in merchandise was damaged due to the flooding.  “We had to get rid of everything that was close to floor level, all of our merchandise that was hanging on the walls, and the merchandise that was ruined when the ceiling tiles began to leak,” she said.  “Even our clothes hangers were ruined.  Every last one was rusted and we’ll have to replace all of them.”

Since the mall only rents spaces for stores to set up in, it did not offer to help rebuild retailers. Instead, each store that suffered damage had to call in company contractors to repair their stores.  “None of the other stores offered to help us.  I mean, I know that they obviously had problems of their own, but they could have at least offered to help.  It just seemed like everybody was out to help themselves and nobody cared about anyone else.  I thought that was pretty sad,” said Lott.

“It was a long, drawn out process, but our corporate office really tried to help us in any way they could.  They paid all of our employees for 60 hours without work because they knew that we would need that money to help rebuild our lives,” Lott said.

However, business at Pac Sun has been booming since it reopened on Sept. 21.  “Business has been awesome.  We made this month’s quota in just two and a half weeks,” said Lott.

Other store managers have been rebuilding their businesses as well.  Erick Brady, the owner and operator of Garfield’s Pub and Restaurant, located at the Food Court in the mall, has been repairing his damaged business, too.

“We suffered extensive structural damage to our building.  We were hit especially hard on the outside, with parts of our brick walls missing,” said Brady. Although Garfield’s suffered little damage from the mall flooding, Hurricane Katrina forced him to shut down the business for repairs that took over a month and a half to complete. 

 “Even after we opened, we had to keep the outside entrance to the restaurant closed because we didn’t think it would be safe for our customers to use,” he said.  But that didn’t stop Garfield’s from reaching booming sale records after the hurricane. 

In fact, the sudden surge in business has been the best he has ever seen.  “Our sales have been through the roof since the hurricane.  We surpassed our quota this month and are now ranked as one of the top-selling Garfield’s in the state,” Brady said.

And Garfield’s also succeeded in taking care of their employees as well.  After Katrina, Brady made sure to accommodate his workers as best he could.  “I gave them practically as many hours as they wanted because I knew they would need the money.  We all did. And I even offered to transfer those employees who could no longer live in the Hattiesburg area due to the disasters of the hurricane.  I told them that if they needed to transfer to another store in another city or state that I would do everything I could to help them,” he said.

Their corporate office also offered support in several ways for its damaged Hattiesburg store.  They sent contractors to help repair the store’s structural and internal damages caused by Katrina’s fury. 

They also helped employees by sending them care packages.  “Corporate was very understanding and helpful.  They sent us flashlights, canned food, water, batteries, and a lot more.  I love working for a company that genuinely cares about its employees,”Brady said.

“I think we all saw the devastation Hurricane Katrina caused.  It could have torn people apart like it did elsewhere.  But I’m so proud of the Hattiesburg residents because we stayed together and overcame it,”he said.  “And it was the same way with the mall mployees.  Although we all work in different venues and in different stores, we came together to support one another when we needed it most,” said Brady.

However, other stores suffered severe damage from the Dillard’s flood.  Terry Thomas, 22, store manager at American Eagle, said his store experienced extensive interior damage.  “It was awful.  There was water everywhere.  The floor was ruined.  The clothes were ruined.  The walls were ruined.  I didn’t know what to do,” Thomas said.

Luckily, American Eagle’s corporate offices also pitched in to offer a helping hand.  They hired workers to help repair the damage to the floor and walls.  They replaced ruined inventory and gave the store a new look.  “Every store in the mall has to do routine remodeling about every five years.  So, corporate just decided to go ahead and remodel our store early.  We got new flooring, better walls, and fresh paint.  The store looks so much nicer now,” said Thomas.

However, Thomas also said that American Eagle did not receive help from other mall vendors, or from the mall itself.  “Why should we expect anybody to help us?  It wasn’t their fault this happened.  Everybody’s corporate offices helped them.  The mall didn’t offer support because it’s not their job.  They just rent the spaces out and provide security for their investments.  Anything that happens to your store, you have to take care of, not them,” he said.

But American Eagle Corp. offered its Hattiesburg employees much needed help.  “They sent us huge boxes full of food, water, wash towels, blankets, and toilet paper and told us to take whatever we needed.  They also gave each employee nine free pieces of merchandise.  Most people chose clothes because their homes didn’t have water yet so they could wash their own clothes,” said Thomas.

But the damage it received did not slow down business at American Eagle.  “We made ten times more money than anyone expected in just our first week after reopening.  We met quota in only one week and business still hasn’t slowed down,” he said.

And American Eagle is not the only store that experienced a boom in business after the mall flooding.  GAP, a retail store that sells preppy-inspired clothing, faced an explosive rise in sales after the incident. 

Jennifer Thompson, 24, the stock manager for GAP, said the store had never met its monthly quota in such a short time.  “It was amazing.  I mean, even though nobody had power and thousands of people were displaced with nowhere to go, the mall was packed with people.  I guess they finally got tired of sitting around in the dark,” Thompson said.

“We managed to sell about four times the amount that we usually do.  I’m not allowed to name dollar amounts, but let’s just say that we’re talking about thousands and thousands of dollars here,” she said.

Luckily, GAP did not experience major damages form the mall flood.  “Our store wasn’t hurt too bad. Most of our damage came from the hurricane, not the flood.  We had minor damage to our dressing rooms, walls, and floors, but it wasn’t that big of a deal,”said Thompson.  “I think that people really over-exaggerated the how much damage the entire mall received.  Only four or five stores suffered major damage out of over a hundred businesses here in the mall.  That’s not near as bad as it could have been,”she said.

“We hired some workers and they fixed us up in no time.  We’re just really thankful that we didn’t suffer the damages that Dillard’s did.  Their store is huge and I know that they’ll make it through this. But our store is much smaller and I don’t know if we could have handled that kind of damage,” she said.

Even though GAP did not suffer any serious damages, their corporate office still offered employees assistance.  “They paid us for hours that we didn’t work, offered us a lot of overtime, and, since we didn’t suffer a lot of damage, they made a contribution to the Red Cross on our behalf,” Thompson said.

And, although the mall is no longer flooded, the floodwaters of chaos and despair that followed Hurricane Katrina will take some time to desiccate. Only then can a true normalcy begin to rebuild the hearts and lives of not just the mall employees, but of all Hattiesburg residents.


Shannon Meadows is a senior journalism major at the University of Southern Mississippi. The After Katrina Newswire is a project of the School of Mass Communication and Journalism at USM (www.usm.edu/afterkatrina). This story can be reprinted with this credit included.