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by Andrew Murff, Director
Business Launchpoint
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Hattiesburg, MS was hit by the Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. Effects from the storm included: roads covered in debris, houses collapsed under fallen trees, loss of electricity and water, and businesses were shut down. Move forward to present day Hattiesburg in 2008, a booming metropolitan area and one of the fastest growing areas in Mississippi. This city has become somewhat of a success story and model for cities impacted by natural disasters on how to make a strong comeback from an economically dire situation. Through swift action and planned decision making the city of Hattiesburg was able to make a strong comeback following the effects of hurricane Katrina. The following information is part of why the city of Hattiesburg has made it back post a natural disaster and how other cities can look to this example and plan accordingly for their community. One of the main challenges to remember is that rebuilding a business environment following any disaster is that people are going to work at putting together their own lives before they look at putting their business back together.
 
Outside Factors
Hattiesburg was affected by Hurricane Katrina but it was not wiped out by it. Many of the surrounding areas, specifically the coast were wiped out. Hattiesburg was the nearest inland city of a large enough size that could take people in from the areas that were hit harder. So there was a huge population boom to the city of Hattiesburg from people coming to take refuge from the storm and many of them stayed. There was an influx of money that people spent on retail stores and housing. Also other businesses came to set up shop in Hattiesburg to service the hurricane zone area but wanted to be out of the hurricane zone and the city of Hattiesburg was the best place for them to work from. With the population boom there was lots of new construction of houses and people were enrolling their kids in school here and getting new jobs and setting up businesses in Hattiesburg. These variables, as well as the actions that were taken by the people of Hattiesburg helped the city of Hattiesburg to become the successful recovery story that it is today.
Task Force
The most important thing done after the storm was the formation of a Task Force team which was the strategic leadership team for putting businesses back together and other action plans in Hattiesburg. This was a group consisting of leaders from the community and private business sector. One official interviewed mentioned that without private business buy-in of a plan it is very hard to accomplish your goals because of the large role that they play in development. This task force was formed by the chamber of commerce who took a lot of burden off political officials because many officials in the area were getting constants calls that dealt with everything from gas gouging, traffic complaints and water needs that they had to take time to address.
The task force team was put together within five days of Katrina hitting the area and they met weekly not just during the immediate aftermath of the storm but for months following the storm to ensure long-term as well as short-term plans were carried out. Taking a step back, business recruiting plays a large part in the economic development plans of any community. If a community is planning to continue to recruit businesses then long-term plans need to be put in place even during disaster situations. Specific examples would be fixing potholes, repairing lights and re-painting buildings that have been worn down or affected by a disaster in some way. As one economic developer explained that even these small unsightly things are enough to make a business decide not to locate in that community. While clean up and repair crews and funding are available post a disaster, have these assets also address areas that were worn down before the disaster hit. Also, by taking swift action and implementing short-term and long-term plans for the Hattiesburg area, the city showed any future businesses looking to locate in Hattiesburg about their dedication and desire to business development. The business recruiters in the area can point to the success and action taken post-Katrina to answer the questions referring to hurricane impact for new businesses looking to locate to the Hattiesburg area.
 
www.archive.uua.org/news. Retrieved 07/23/08
www.city-data.com. Retrieved 07/23/08
Action Taken
The ADP (Area Development Partnership) was one of the main organizations to lead in the businesses recover from Katrina. The ADP is the local chamber of commerce and economic development for Hattiesburg and the surrounding areas of Forrest Co, Perry Co and Lamar Co. One of the first things the ADP did to help businesses was to take an immediate survey of businesses in their area to determine the needs that these business owners were facing. Similar to doing a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) the ADP wanted to know what conditions the people were in and the condition of their businesses and what their immediate needs were so that the ADP could address those needs. They surveyed via mail, telephone calls and onsite visitation. They identified supplies that were needed and helped them to get those supplies such as ice, water and tarps. They also made calls to utility companies to help people get their houses and businesses back up and running. For those whose businesses were displaced by the storm the ADP worked closely with local commercial realtors to help identify what business spaces were available.
Some may think that things such as water, ice and tarps do not necessarily help businesses directly but they help the business owners get their own personal lives back in order so that they can get their businesses back in order. Echoed several times in the interviews that were taken for this information was the fact that people needed to get their lives together first before they will address the needs of their businesses. For other communities wanting to plan for business recovery following a disaster these are good short-term plans of helping people put their lives back together so that the long-term plans of business recovery will come to fruition.
The ADP also put together a public relations marketing campaign to make sure others knew to contact the ADP so that they could direct people to resources and find out from other businesses what their needs were. There was a need to have a central hub of where information could be accessed so that there wasn’t mass confusion and different information coming from different places. One of the things the ADP did to address this was to publish a disaster assistance package. This package of information detailed things such as: how small businesses should register with FEMA, important contact numbers, dealing with contractors and warning signs to avoid contractor fraud, disaster loan information, IRS and tax paying information in regards to those affected by Katrina as well as sources of assistance ranging from roofing to locations of Red Cross assistance centers. They also included telephone numbers for all utility companies servicing the area, who to contact if people wanted to volunteer or supply donations and locations of distribution centers with their available items and items that the centers needed. These are all very useful pieces of information and to have them together in one place and available to the public is a very efficient resource for a disaster-hit community to have.
 
www.flickr.com. Retrieved 07/23/08
www.flickr.com. Retrieved 07/23/08
Fraud Awareness
Post any type of disaster there is always a need for new construction or construction on existing facilities and houses. Contractor fraud often happens in situations like this so this was something the ADP felt should be addressed in their information packet. The information on dealing with contractor fraud and how to avoid it was helpful to prevent people getting taken for granted. There are many laws and licenses that contractors have to abide by that the public is unaware of and this is important information for people who have just been hit by a disaster to know.
 
www.flickr.com. Retrieved 07/23/08
www.flickr.com. Retrieved 07/23/08
Helping Small Business
Something else that was put in place to help business recovery in the Hattiesburg area was the Southern Miss Business Assistance Center (BAC). The BAC was originally designed to help businesses affected by Katrina but because of its success and the long-term plans it has been turned into a successful small business incubator for the city of Hattiesburg that continues to help the small business community. The BAC became a one-stop shop for information pertaining to financial assistance programs, local building permit questions and paperwork to secure FEMA contracts post Katrina. It helped businesses with the appropriate paperwork to be able to bid on FEMA projects that were available following the storm. Workshops were held to educate people on small business start-up and financial programs available since Katrina hit such as GOZONE tax credits. Workshops also hosted meetings where business owners could meet with local, state, and federal representatives to discuss how they could help rebuild their community.
For communities planning for future disasters, getting state or federal assistance for a grant to be put in place for the creation of a Business Assistance Center in case of a natural disaster would be something that would be very helpful to rebuild the business environment of a community following a natural disaster.
The actions of the task force team and the ADP as well as many others including the staff of the BAC were able to help rebuild the business community of Hattiesburg and do it in a very efficient and effective manner. Through short-term and long-term plans the people of Hattiesburg were able to recover significantly from the effects of hurricane Katrina and become one of the fastest growing areas in Mississippi.
Immediate Needs Realized
- Need for satellite phones for the police, fire department, hospitals, and government officials.
- When phones are down those that are in charge of immediate needs have to be able to coordinate with each other.
- Need to have a state coordinated plan to share police and firemen to help in emergencies.
- Hattiesburg Police and Firemen were stretched too thin to be able to cover all that was happening from traffic directing because of downed lights, theft and emergency assistance.
- Having a state plan where police and fire officials from other communities not affected by the disaster to be on stand by to assist those communities that were affected.
- Need to implement action plan immediately.
- When needs are directly in people’s faces is when communities will act and by pass red-tape or political differences to get things accomplished. If a community does not act quickly when need is very apparent they will lose any momentum and community backing to accomplish needed objectives.
- Need to have a central place where assistance information is available.
- Part of the reason of forming the Task Force was to centralize the plan for moving forward post the disaster. The people that consisted of the task force were able to bring the information from their areas to one place and then the plans were put in place to help all the areas. This is more efficient than having different plans put in place in different areas of town by different people that are trying to accomplish similar goals.
- When people know where they can go to get information it helps calm situations and organizes the process that people can put their lives back together.
- Hattiesburg also put together Disaster Assistance Package that was an essential package of information that was centralized and put in a way that people could know what to do and who to access for the different needs that they faced.
- If people’s personal lives are not put back together following a disaster it is hard to get businesses back up.
- People need to know where to turn to for information and where to get basic supplies such as tarps, water, ice, etc. Business owners immediate concerns will be themselves and their family, business needs will become secondary. The sooner these people have access to the needed supplies the sooner they can re-open their businesses.
- Awareness of Contract Fraud
- In the aftermath of disasters there is a lot of construction that will take place. Many areas do not have zoning or enforced building code standards. The Disaster Assistance Package included vital information for the public to understand more about contractor fraud and how to avoid it.
- Many people can be taken advantage of in the name of good-will by contractors who build or re-build houses not up to code or construction standards and this leaves the home owner in another bad situation.
- Current Emergency Plans need a back-up emergency plan.
- In the case of Hattiesburg, most emergency plans could not cope with the disaster and there was no contingency plan in place if the first plan failed. The expense may be very high and it is hard to plan for everything, that’s why these occurrences are called ‘natural disasters’.
- This can involve things ranging from extra back-up generators, trained volunteer traffic directors, extra fuel supplies, having extra medicines put in safe storage, etc.
East Hattiesburg video documentary project
Videos by University of Southern Mississippi geography course in "Economic Development and the African-American Community," 2008, in association with the USM Center for Black Studies. These videos were created as part of USM's continuing work with Hattiesburg's development initiatives, to help foster community identity and pride, especially in the city's African-American and low-income neighborhoods.
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 Photos above by Mark M. Miller |
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