(Photo from US Army)
- Looking back on the storm that changed the Mississippi Coast through books and documentaries.
Magnolia Tribune’s ‘Mississippi Legends’ series, which runs on Sundays, typically profiles a person who has made a significant impact on Mississippi arts and/or history. But today’s legend, much like Cher, Madonna, and Elvis, is often referred to by one name: Katrina.
The legendary hurricane slammed into the Mississippi Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005 – 20 years ago. Yet the monster storm will forever be a part of our psyche – etched in our brains with a sense of both horror and fascination.
The human spirit has never been tested like it was in the aftermath of the destructive storm.
The Hurricane Hits
A tropical depression formed in the Caribbean on August 19, 2005, and as it traveled across warm waters to the Gulf of Mexico, it gathered steam, becoming a full-fledged hurricane on August 23. Meteorologists sat up and paid attention as they tracked the growing storm, which reached sustained wind speeds of 175mph over the Gulf as it reached a Category 5 level.
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina barreled onto the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Ground Zero for the storm was the tiny town of Pearlington, Mississippi, near the Mississippi-Louisiana state line.
The storm brought a surge of water as high as a three-story home and caused $320 billion in damages (adjusted for inflation). The casualties of the storm were catastrophic. In addition to the loss of 90% of structures within a half-mile from landfall, 1392 people lost their lives either as a direct result of the storm or indirectly from heart attacks and other issues.
Katrina Remembered
The facts surrounding the most significant storm of this century have fascinated people for two decades. It’s hard to imagine preparing for such a storm, and even harder to imagine dealing with the storm’s aftermath. Books have been written and documentaries have been produced.
Haley Barbour was Mississippi’s governor at the time of the storm. His actions in the days, weeks, and months following the storm are a study in effective leadership. He wrote about it in America’s Great Storm, co-written by Jere Nash and published by the University Press of Mississippi.
NancyKay Wessman had recently retired from her position as communications director for the Mississippi State Department of Health when Katrina hit. “It was the first storm in 25 years that I was not involved with.” Using her knowledge of public health and the contacts she developed while at the DOH, NancyKay wrote the definitive book on Hurricane Katrina. Katrina, Mississippi: Voices from Ground Zero, was published by Triton, a division of Nautilus Press in Oxford, Mississippi.
She compiled information gleaned from eight years of interviews with the “champions of the storm,” those first responders who stayed behind to handle the aftermath of the storm—the book centers on Dr. Robert Travnicek, a public health physician on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Outlining the innovative and successful “unified command” concept, Mississippi’s response to Katrina is a case study in successful hurricane response.
Both books were published ten years after Katrina hit Mississippi.
The Mississippi Department of Transportation will release a documentary this week that details the department’s experience during the aftermath of Katrina. MDOT Remembers Hurricane Katrina: 20 Years Later tells the story of how the department tackled the monumental task of rebuilding or repairing nearly every major route along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The documentary can be found on MDOT’s YouTube channel.
Other documentaries about Katrina have been made over the years, with a couple currently streaming on popular platforms. National Geographic’s Hurricane Katrina: A Race Against Time is a five-part series that exposes failures and heroes. Hope in High Water: A People’s Recovery 20 Years After Hurricane Katrina is a documentary by journalist Trymaine Lee. Both documentaries focus on Katrina’s destruction and aftermath in New Orleans.
Deep South Dining, the podcast about food and cooking on Mississippi Think Radio, will air a special on Katrina on August 25. Hosts Malcolm White and Carol Puckett will remember the storm and the havoc it created on foodways in Mississippi and across the Gulf Coast.
Susan Marquez
