Hurricane Katrina and the lessons learned from Mississippi’s recovery

On the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Eric Holdeman from the Emergency Management magazine interviews Jon Mabry, chief operations officer of Mississipi's Disaster Recovery Division about the difficulties the recovery programs had to face.

Mr Mabry's advice to states on large-scale disaster recovery efforts:

"Involve and communicate with the community, the media and all stakeholders about what you’re doing. Involve local contractors/businesses; visit the communities regularly; be visible and candid about what you’re doing. Admit your mistakes while also communicating your success. Disaster recovery programs and policies can’t be formulated or implemented in a vacuum, especially when you’re talking about billions in taxpayer dollars coming down from a federal agency."