Preparing for hurricane season amid COVID-19 pandemic

Thursday morning, Governor Tate Reeves held a press conference about hurricane preparedness at the Ground Zero Museum in Waveland.

Almost 15 years ago, Hurricane Katrina tore through the Gulf Coast. Katrina was one of the most costly natural disasters of all-time.

A press conference was held in Waveland addressing how well the state is prepared considering COVID-19 and hurricane season. FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor said, “Current challenges continue to complicate the landscape so not just hurricane season, not just recovery, but response to COVID-19.”

During the meeting, it was announced $4 million in federal grants are going to emergency management in South Mississippi, including $2.2 million to the Bay St. Louis Fire Department, $1 million to the Biloxi Fire Department, $70,000 to the Pascagoula Fire Department, and over $500,000 to the Department of Marine Resources for port security.  Governor Reeves said, “The model that works best for America is that if we have natural disasters they must be state managed, locally executed, and federally resourced.”

If a natural disaster does come this way, there will be a plan put in place for shelters and buses to accommodate COVID guidelines.

Hurricane preparedness is a very important topic along the Coast, but especially concerning for Waveland Mayor Mike Smith. “Before there was a baseline of Hurricane Camelia, well Katrina set a new benchmark for that. That is my concern going forward is that the people are going to say ‘well, I survived Katrina where I live and I’m going to be fine.’ We don’t know if the next storm is going to be worse than Katrina.”