The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season is here, and most experts are expecting another active season. The 2024 season spawned Helene and Milton. Two storms that took their place in infamy given the significant loss of life and damage caused as they ravaged the southeastern United States. August will mark the 20th anniversary of another infamous storm that changed the Gulf Coast region forever – Hurricane Katrina. On the eve of his annual Hurricane House preparedness event, “new-ish: Mississippi resident and noted storm chaser Josh Morgerman reflects on the overlooked stories in the state.
What Happened?
Hurricane Katrina made an initial landfall on August 25th, 2005 as a Category 1 hurricane. After moving across southern Florida, it became a dangerous Category 5 storm feeding off of extremely warm waters in the Gulf. According to the NWS Mobile website, “Katrina weakened to a Category 3 before making landfall (on August 29th) along the northern Gulf Coast, first in southeast Louisiana (sustained winds: 125mph) and then made landfall once more along the Mississippi Gulf Coast (sustained winds: 120mph).”
A 2023 NOAA report indicated, “Katrina was responsible for a total of nearly 1400 combined direct and indirect fatalities. This includes 520 direct deaths — 341 in Louisiana, 172 in Mississippi, 6 in Florida, and 1 in Georgia.” Over 500 indirect deaths, mostly cardiovascular causes, were ultimately reported as well. Katrina still ranks as the third deadliest hurricane in U.S. history behind the Galveston hurricane of 1900 (8000+ deaths) and the 1928 Lake Okeechobee, Florida hurricane (2500+ deaths).
For Mississippi, there was a bit of a double-whammy. As the storm made landfall in Louisiana, coastal Mississippi was located on the “dirty” side of the eye. The motion of the storm combined with counterclockwise wind flow produces the strongest winds and highest surge in that region. Additionally, Katrina made another landfall near Hancock County, Mississippi as a Category hurricane.
The NWS Mobile Office website has an excellent summary of the storm. It stated, “Known for its storm surge, Katrina’s highest surge was found in a zone from just east of the eye near Bay St. Louis, MS east to the northern reaches of Mobile Bay.” Morgerman, who goes by iCyclone in the chaser world, has settled in the Bay St. Louis area and has even built a hurricane-fortified home called “Hurricane House.” He told me, “New Orleans of course dominated the headlines. But what happened in Mississippi was also cataclysmic. It’s hard to put it into words. Whole neighborhoods were swept away—left unrecognizable.”
Why Mississippi Was Particularly Vulnerable
Morgerman, who has penetrated the cores of 80 hurricanes and typhoons around the globe (a world record), went on to say, “I feel like every longtime Coastal Mississippian divides their life into two eras: Before Katrina and After Katrina.” However, the Mississippi resident has a better understanding of his part of the U.S. Gulf Coast is prone to really big storm surges. He said, “I didn’t understand why until I started living here. You go the beach and you want to take a swim, and it’s like you have to walk a mile out just to get in up to your waist. The water is crazy shallow—it’s nuts. And shallow water offshore means big surges.” To date, the two biggest storm surges in U.S. history happened in Mississippi – Katrina (2005) and Camille (1969).
Downtown Bay Saint Louis has very little elevation, so many buildings were destroyed in Katrina though a small bluff protected some of the buildings located in the downtown area. According to Morgerman, “Residential areas within a couple of blocks of the water were just obliterated.” Morgerman took a different approach with his home. His “Hurricane House” uses things like Jamies Hardie fiber cement siding that repels water and is impact-resistant. He also incorporated premium construction materials likeresistant to Premium construction material like 2 x 6 studs on the perimeter of the house;
Solid, raised chain wall foundations; continuous load path construction to reinforce connection points; and a system of cables in the walls to resist uplift from the wind.
Hurricane House Event Highlights Preparedness
So why did Morgerman choose to build his Gold Fortified home there. “Except for that one cinderblock house next door, every house you can see was built after Katrina. This whole neighborhood was swept away in the storm.” According to the storm chaser, Hurricane House was actually built on the grave of another house. For the past couple of years, Morgerman has hosted an event at Hurricane House. The event attracts some of the nation’s top meteorologists, emergency management officials, media and decision-makers. He reflected, ““Now, I want to be really clear: This event is not a celebration of hurricanes! I don’t want the neighbors to run me out of town with torches and pitchforks.” Josh leverages his visibility and platform for a different reason. He told me, “It’s to celebrate awareness and preparedness. And twenty years after Katrina, that hits home for folks here.”
In 2024, I documented the story of Hurricane House. The fortifiedhome.org website wrote, “The fortified construction method is a voluntary construction standard backed by decades of research, that your roofing contractor or builder can use to help protect your home against severe weather.” It is a program established by Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety and is comprised of three levels of certification: Bronze, Silver, or Gold. Morgerman added, “Folks don’t realize this, but we can build for hurricanes. We’re not completely at their mercy.”
Like anyone with common sense living in the Gulf region, Morgerman knows that it is not a matter of “if” but “when” the next strong hurricane hits the region. He remarked, ““I built my home with specific sponsors and engineering under the assumption that it’s gonna get whacked a few times. My philosophy is: Don’t build in fear of hurricanes—build with the *expectation* of hurricanes. Calm down, accept the inevitable, and just build accordingly.”
The Gulf Coast region has a disproportionate number of socio-economically vulnerable communities. Many households may not be able to afford a hurricane-fortified house, but preparation still matters to them too. According to the Mississippi Center for Justice website, “When Hurricane Katrina devastated the southern half of Mississippi in 2005, more than 60 percent of single-family dwellings were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable.” Those numbers were even higher for rental properties. Such events, according to MCJ, “Created even more displaced residents in a state where safe and affordable housing was already out of reach for so many low-income and minority residents.”
Everyone, irrespective of race, income, or status was impacted by Hurricane Katrina, which makes Morgerman’s message about preparedness even more important. Hurricanes are already bad enough and in recent years, many storms approaching the Gulf Coast have rapidly intensified, which means even less time to prepare. As the 2025 season ramps up, it is critical that individuals, government agencies, businesses and stakeholders have proactive plans.
A 2024 National Academies report on compound disasters in the Gulf region cautioned about risk, resiliency, and response in the region. Key messages centered around:
- Preparedness for new, interconnected, and complex risk scenarios.
- Planning and preparation for multiple and varied disruptive events combined with a range of social vulnerabilities and disaster impact.
- Increased capacity to absorb hazard impacts and minimize recovery needs.
- Recalibration of what benchmark storms shape actions and preparation.
- “Epoch” rather than “event” view planning m for recovery.
