LAUREL — Emergency officials will tell you that Hurricane Katrina rewrote the book on disaster response.

While the Jones County Emergency Management Agency has handled its share of severe weather, it was unlikely that a hurricane would remain intact this far from the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

However, many clearly recall that’s exactly what happened. Except for the Gulf Coast, the Jones County area was the most adversely affected from the storm of our lifetime — Hurricane Katrina.

Don McKinnon, executive director of the Jones County EMA, said his office began conference calls with the National Weather Service in Jackson on the Thursday before the storm.

“No two storms are alike,” he said. “They each have their own unique characteristics. On July 9, 2005, Hurricane Dennis was almost on the same exact track before making a 90 degree turn and went to Alabama.”

McKinnon said Hurricane Katrina was predicted to be a bad storm, but before reaching the Gulf Coast, could have changed direction. He said the storm could have also collapsed upon reaching the coast.

“By Sunday afternoon, we knew it wasn’t going to turn,” he said. “We met with all of the elected officials, and asked that city and county governments be closed Monday and maybe Tuesday.”

As Hurricane Katrina blew in, McKinnon said he watched trees falling and buildings falling apart from his office at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Then, emergency 9-1-1 calls began filtering in from New Orleans.

“They were routed to us, and we were talking to people who were trapped on their roofs or in their attics,” he said. “There was no way out and the water was coming up. They were asking us what to do, and then their phones went dead.

“That was Tuesday after the levees broke,” McKinnon added. “It was a very helpless feeling with someone talking to you and taking their last breaths. There wasn’t  anything we could do to help them.”

McKinnon said emergency officials watched the radar as the storm blew in from Waynesboro.

“The closer it got to us, the redder it got,” he said. “The entire cell covered all of Jones County and was a deep, deep red.

“We were the hardest hit area except for the Gulf Coast,” McKinnon added. “We got everything except the storm surge. When the Governor flew over, he wasn’t scheduled to stop here, but he saw the damage and had the chopper turn around and came here.”

McKinnon said Jones County was “100 percent” without power and every road outside of the city limits was at one time blocked by trees.

“We don’t encourage people to go out and clear away trees if they’re wrapped up in energized power lines,” he said. “But, we were without power. If you wanted to open up the roads, you had to do it yourself.”

McKinnon said those on oxygen faced certain death if they couldn’t find a power source, and there was no fuel available as most gas stations didn’t have generators.

“We threw the old book out,” he said. “Hurricane Katrina is now the new baseline.”

McKinnon said one of the major hindrances to immediate recovery efforts was the number of people who went out to see how bad the storm was.

“They weren’t allowing us to clear the roads, or power companies to do their jobs,” he said. “Plus, they were burning up necessary fuel. They were in the way of public safety and utility workers trying to get the power restored.”

McKinnon said he remained at the EOC for two weeks, finally getting information about his house from neighbors.

“It was 10 days before I even knew I had a house,” he said. “Some shingles blew off and two windows were broken, but I was extremely fortunate.”

McKinnon said the storm brought 130 miles per hour sustained winds with even greater gusts.

“I watched trees just lay down and give up,” he said. “Buildings and signs just came apart. We had seven storm-related deaths.”

McKinnon said two of those deaths came from falling trees or limbs. Luckily, there weren’t that many injuries reported.

As preparation for the storm, McKinnon said press releases were issued four times a day. Still, very few were actually prepared when Hurricane Katrina hit.

“I ran those press releases everywhere I could,” he said. “But, 60 to 80 percent of people made little to no preparations for this storm.

“We’re accustomed to dealing with a certain number of people who can’t take care of themselves,” McKinnon added. “We had 60,000 people who couldn’t take care of themselves.”

McKinnon said emergency officials took care of their families before the storm because they had to be at the EOC once the storm hit.

“Our job is here,” he said. “We have to be 100 percent in the game. We have to take care of our families before the fact, because during and immediately after, we have to be here physically and mentally.”

McKinnon said the Jones County Emergency Management Agency has taken a number of steps since August 2005 to be better prepared should a similar storm strike. City halls and Laurel and volunteer fire departments now have generators, as do a number of service stations.

“We also received a FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) 361 shelter grant which will allow us to shelter 850 to 1,000 people during the height of the storm,” he said. “That’s the first place we’ll open, and then we’ll start opening other places.”

McKinnon said the shelter, which will open next September at the South Mississippi Fairgrounds, will allow emergency officials to focus their resources in one place.

“No one is looking forward to another Katrina like storm,” he said. “A lot of people always worry now any time a storm that may be bad is coming towards us. No one looks forward to that.”

Jones County Fire Coordinator Dan McKenna was part of the Glade Volunteer Fire Department when Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

“I don’t think an area of the county wasn’t impacted,” he said. “I’ve experienced tornadoes, wildfires, floods and earthquakes, but Hurricane Katrina is the worst thing I’ve ever experienced.”

McKinnon noted that MEMA (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency) didn’t believe Jones County was that adversely affected.

“We did everything we could possibly do, but their staff was all on the Coast,” he said. “They sent three people here to help, but they wanted to be on the Coast.”

McKinnon said it wasn’t until two days after the storm, once Governor Barbour had visited the area, that Jones County received help from MEMA.

“I asked for ice, water and MREs (Meals Ready to Eat),” he said. “We started getting it.”

McKenna said that prior to Hurricane Katrina, firefighters knocked on the doors of people in substandard housing and told them to seek shelter.

“It was a door-to-door campaign,” he said. “If they weren’t there, we left a note on their front door. It was late Saturday afternoon when we finished.”

McKenna noted that there was also a Spanish liaison who told those in the Hispanic population that the storm was heading to Jones County.

“If it saved just one life, it was worth it,” he said. “That’s still part of our plans going forward. I think it’s real effective.”

McKinnon added that there was also a Spanish interpreter in one shelter throughout the time it was open.

McKenna said John Bounds, who is District Chief for the Northeast Jones Fire District, called a meeting on the Saturday before the storm telling VFDs to help each other once it struck.

“We were thinking that one area may be potentially impacted,” he said. “That went out the window. We knew we were in deep trouble.”

McKinnon said he still questions whether he could have done more to prevent the deaths that happened during the storm.

“I did everything I possibly could,” he said. “They just chose to not heed the warning. People have to take responsibility for their own selves and make an informed decision.”

McKinnon noted that it is a “re-education process” every year because people are constantly moving into the area.

“They think that it can’t be as bad as we’re saying,” he said.

McKenna added that it was also a learning process for the VFDs.

“We now have a paper trail,” he said. “That makes it easier to work with FEMA and MEMA on cost recovery.”

McKenna said Glade firefighters also stayed off their regular jobs for nearly three weeks. He noted that they could have been taken on as emergency hires similar to what was done in Wayne County.

“We now have a written plan on how to deal with an event like that again,” he said. “It helps us prepare physically as well as mentally. We know what we need and why we need it.”

McKenna recalled that as he left his home in the Landrum Community, there was a line of people armed with chainsaws along George Boutwell Road.

“They didn’t wait for somebody to do it for them,” he said. “They got out there and helped.”

McKinnon said the EOC also served as meeting point for the Laurel City Council, Jones County Board of Supervisors and other boards.

“The city met here, and the decisions that needed to be made were made here,” he said. “Recovery went a lot smoother because of that.”