Video: Hurricane Katrina Anniversary

August 29, 2016

WINONA, Miss.(WCBI)—Eleven years ago today Hurricane Katrina made land fall and changed the face of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Coastal Mississippians along with New Orleans residents were forced to evacuate their homes.

WCBI’s Victoria Bailey visits a city today that many, during this time, considered a safe haven.

It was sad that all those people’s homes had been flooded.

With winds of up to 120 miles per hour and a devastating storm surge, Hurricane Katrina came ashore nearly 300 miles south of Winona.

Mayor Jerry Flowers says,”And when it hit that morning. I guess it hit here about 6-o’clock and about that time the power went off. You know we were out of power in Winona for a number of days.”

The town of 54-hundred just off of I-55 was in the path of the evacuation route.

People were pulling into the city by the hundreds.
Montgomery County EMA Director Allen Pratt says they were able to help so many because of the community effort.

Allen Pratt, Montgomery County EMA Director says,”A lot of people that were coming in. We had shelters that the churches opened and the city and county pitched in together and had different programs and assisted evacuees, and also the city and county fire departments all of our local volunteers worked really hard.”

Despite having their own challenges, Winona residents and members of local churches pitched in.

Winona First Baptist Church Secretary Brenda Locke says,”It was a church wide effort we had volunteers come in and fixed meals and got things ready for them to make palettes, we tried to put families together in the different Sunday school rooms.”

Pratt says that tragedy highlights the love and care in the city but it also worked as a teachable moment.

Pratt says,” just having a communication plan, now we have back up generators where we can communicate when it occurs again.”

According to “Do Something.org, Hurricane Katrina’s winds reached 175 miles per hour. The final Death Toll was 1,836 and there is still 705 people still reported missing.