Video: Misunderstandings About Hurricane Katrina

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STARKVILLE, Miss.(WCBI)–It’s been ten years since Hurricane Katrina battered the Mississippi Gulf Coast, claiming lives and changing the landscape.

A decade after the storm, many Mississippians still have a chip on our shoulders.

Thats because when most of the nation thinks Katrina they think about New Orleans.

And, although the conditions were horrible there, it wasn’t because the city was hit by the hurricane.

It was the levees that failed in New Orleans, flooding the city causing death and stranding residents.

But it was the Category 3 storm that hit the Mississippi Coast full force.

When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the coast and then moved inland to other cities there were some 200 emergency calls in Oktibbeha County. Ten years later, EMA Director Shank Phelps is looking at the numbers that are now a part of history.

“You can imagine what the Gulf Coast looked like as far as we are inland. And we had this much damage. We had some guys that went down later and it was just devastating,” said Shank Phelps/Oktibbeha County EMA Director.

Devastating to Mississippi. Changing the Coast in cities like Gulfport, Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Long Beach, Biloxi, and of course Waveland which is no longer a viable town one decade later.

“But that was more of a man made factor with the levies breaking. Actually believe it or not a lot of the people have a hard time believing this but, New Orleans was sideswiped. They got the western side, the weaker side of Katrina, Mississippi took the full force,” said Greg Nordstrom/MSU Meteorology Instructor.

“Mississippi took the blunt because usually on a hurricane, your worse damage is on the east side of the storm,” said Shank Phelps.

Even at the height of the storm and immediate danger, many Coast residents thought to wait the storm out, figuring nothing could be as violent as killer storm Camille was in 1969.

“Well, yes, you know Camille is one of the worse hurricanes of all time, this was a much larger storm. You know this was a much different storm. No two storms are the same,” said Greg Nordstrom.

A slip of the tongue falsely refers to victims as refugees instead of the evacuees that they were at the time.

“You know when I look back 10 years ago, we were not prepared for all those evacuees that came into Lowndes County. You know we had to call different agencies for help and assistance. Today I can say we are better prepared,” said Cindy Lawrence/Lowndes County EMA Director.

Nordstrom who personally rode out the storm in Gulfport cautions on not allowing ourselves to be drenched in deception thinking nothing can top what was experienced by Katrina.

“If that storm wasn’t weakening when it came in, as bad as it was it would have been a lot lot worse. You probably would have had a surge 5 or ten feet higher and winds probably pushing 150 to 160 miles per hour,” said Greg Nordstrom.

Nine out of ten hurricane deaths are from surges of water not high winds. We are told by experts to hide from winds, but run from the waters.