Digital Snapshots

Mississippi’s Gulf Coast has always been shaped by hurricanes. Early settlement in the eighteenth century was so sparse that hurricanes had minimal impact on people, who were affected more by yellow fever epidemics than hurricanes. Settlements increased in the mid-nineteenth century with towns such as Shieldsboro (Bay St. Louis), Pass Christian, Biloxi, Ocean Springs, and Pascagoula emerging as seasonal resort towns for wealthy New Orleanians who were escaping the yellow fever “season” in their city. Summer population booms coincided with calm hurricane seasons until the latter half of the nineteenth century when hurricanes became more active. Three storms (1852, 1855, and 1860) hit Pascagoula, destroying the wharf, trees, bathhouses, and other structures [i]. With no federal disaster relief at the time, Pascagoula had limited resources for rebuilding as a resort town given the level of destruction.

Coastal development increased rapidly after the Civil War, aided by increased railroad access from New Orleans to Mobile. Hurricane activity ramped up between 1893-1916 with six hurricanes hitting the coast. This was followed by yet another period of calm until after World War II. Booming post-war populations needed housing, infrastructure (roads, power, water and sewage, schools, hospitals), and of course, employment. In addition to the Port of Gulfport (established in 1902), the defense industry moved to the coast with Ingalls Shipbuilding (1939), Keesler Air Force Base (1941), and Stennis Space Center (1966) all providing job opportunities. After such rapid growth and a building boom with very few hurricanes, the 1960s came roaring in with the storminess of Ethel (1960), Betsy (1965), and ending with Camille (1969). Camille became a harbinger for the future of Mississippi’s Gulf Coast.

Camille, a Category 5 hurricane, made landfall in Waveland on August 17, 1969, as the second most intense storm to hit the United States in the twentieth century. At landfall, the 24-foot storm surge flattened everything east of the eyewall along Mississippi’s coast to the Alabama-Florida border. Camille became the second costliest hurricane of the decade ($1.421 billion). The physical destruction of housing and infrastructure was shocking; not only did people lose their homes but their businesses and livelihoods.

Damage mirrored the segregated patterns at the time and accentuated a recovery divide. Racial segregation in the Jim Crow South manifested itself in the mandatory evacuation from the coast where Black evacuees were sent on separate buses to Jackson State College, while white evacuees went on separate buses to shelter at hotels in Jackson. School desegregation had not been fully achieved prior to Camille, despite the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. The coupling of federal disaster aid with the 1964 Civil Rights Act gave the federal government leverage to withhold financial assistance until the schools were finally integrated on December 31, 1969, the mandated deadline. The pairing of disaster assistance and social justice shaped recovery efforts based on class, race, and power divides, but separate was not equal [ii]. White neighborhoods with resources (households and businesses) built back better than ever, while Black neighborhoods with less power and fewer resources took longer to recover, if at all.

The decades following Camille again produced rapid growth with demand for coastal living and amenities fueling residential and commercial development. Yet again this occurred in a time of fewer, less intense, and destructive hurricanes. While Hurricane Frederick produced $50 million in damages in 1979, and Hurricane Elena made landfall near Gulfport in 1985 as a Category 3 hurricane, rapid development continued.  There was a major increase in housing units, mostly residential and leisure developments for more affluent year-round residents, including retirees. Passage of the Mississippi Gaming Control Act in 1990 legalized gambling along the coast, with dockside casinos approved by Hancock and Harrison counties. Casinos became a revenue generator and tourism accelerator, fueling even more development despite the potential for catastrophic losses to infrastructure should another Camille strike the region. In 2005, the inevitable happened as another powerful storm, Hurricane Katrina, made landfall, eerily following a similar track as Camille. Only this time, the intense nature of the storm (Category 3 at landfall), and a 28-foot storm surge produced catastrophic damage along the coast. Hurricane Katrina became the costliest hurricane in U.S. history at $108 billion at the time and remains so today.

The greatest damage to structures occurred to the right of the storm track [iii].  All along the coast, 15 percent of the residential units had damage, the most catastrophic in Waveland, Diamondhead, Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, and D’Iberville. Differences in the structures themselves (age, quality of construction, elevation) influenced the extent of damage varying from one neighborhood to another. The pre-existing social and historical patterns of race and class influenced the post-Katrina reconstruction, contributing to the story of uneven recovery.

Disaster recovery is a long and contentious process with different views on how recovery resources should be used. Is housing the primary focus, or should it be reopening businesses? Almost immediately the state focused on re-opening and expanding the Port of Gulfport, authorizing onshore gaming, compensating homeowners without flood insurance, and giving grants to homeowners to elevate homes. Building affordable housing or reconstructing public housing, especially for low-income renters, fared less well. When private developers rebuilt apartment buildings, they turned into beachfront condominiums, economically out of reach of the displaced renters. The 2008-11 economic recession took a toll on the recovery all along the coast, with developers and landowners unable to meet the housing demand because of the high interest rates and lack of availability of mortgages. A further blow to the recovery of the coast, especially as a tourist destination, was the fouling of the pristine beaches by the 2020 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The legacy of Hurricane Katrina today in coastal Mississippi is mixed. In many neighborhoods, vacant lots dot the landscape, but there are more diverse populations – Hispanic, African American, and Asian residents. Yet, the region is becoming more socially vulnerable with aging members, wealth inequalities, and structural inequalities from the past. With the increased density of development and infrastructure, and the entrance into a new active period of hurricanes, only time will tell when the next Camille-Katrina occurs.