When people ask where I was during Hurricane Katrina, the memories come rushing back. Like many along the Mississippi Gulf…

August 29, 2005, was an unforgettable day for most Mississippians, even for those of us who lived way up in the Northeastern corner of the state. 

People were not the only creatures impacted by Hurricane Katrina. And although helping people recover was the priority, we soon turned to helping our feathered friends. As it turned out, these efforts provided folks with a diversion from their toils at home, and a reason for hope, that normal could return, including their own backyards.

I was sixteen when Hurricane Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast. At that age, I didn’t fully understand the weight of what had happened. I knew my parents were devastated — so many adults around me carried an exhaustion and grief that I couldn’t name at the time. Entire neighborhoods had been flattened, jobs and routines disappeared overnight, and the world I’d always known suddenly felt unrecognizable.

In 2005, I had just returned home from an 18-month mission trip in Brisbane, Australia. Settled back on the West…

Karli Matthews, a middle school student at Lee Academy in Clarksdale, has been named Mississippi’s state champion for the National Civics Bee®. 

Reverend Edwin (Eddie) Kirby is now entering his eleventh year as our pastor at First Methodist Church in Pascagoula. Brother Eddie is an exceptional leader for our congregation—I already have him on the Mount Rushmore of all-time preachers at FMC. To my great joy, he and I have become good friends.

There are not many lighthearted memories from Hurricane Katrina, but there are lessons, stories, and moments of strength that still…

Katrina 

That was her name— the name of the hurricane. The storm of the century. Ironically, the great storm that tore everything apart ended up bringing people together. I was only nine years old when I experienced the worst hurricane of my lifetime— Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane whose name still sends shivers down so many people’s spines to this day. 

The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) has begun construction of a new oyster hatchery that aims to help alleviate the decline in oyster harvests along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The hatchery will be located at USM’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL) Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center (TCMAC) Cedar Point campus in Ocean Springs, Miss. It will be capable of producing up to one billion eyed larvae per year for use in restoration and research, with completion expected in late summer or early fall 2026.

Hurricanes are a part of life in the south. We recall the aftermath of each one of them, some worst than others. Family and friends rally around those in need. We know how to prepare ahead of time, and what to do when it is over. But the big storms are different, and so it was with Hurricane Katrina. As my wife and I lamented upon returning to our water-soaked home, “this will take a while”.

I have talked to a lot of people over the years who insist that they don’t like grits. It usually means all they have ever had are white grits (which are pretty grim) or they simply have never had well prepared yellow grits.

Loving, or at least appreciating, Lubber Grasshoppers is hard for many folks. Gardeners are not fans. In some years, it appears that they show up as small armies, chewing up everything in sight. So, where are their predators? Can we get more of those? The short answer is no.

Some places capture your heart long before you realize they’re shaping your dreams. For Jennifer Boone, that place was Natchez. As a little girl growing up in Hattiesburg, she and her mother would slip away for long weekends in the historic river town. They’d walk the shaded streets, peek into grand homes, and linger in the small shops that lined Main Street. Those trips became cherished memories—and they planted a seed that would eventually grow into her life’s dream.

Labor Day is right around the corner, and I think I speak for all of us when I say that a break is very much needed. Thankfully, you can spend your Labor Day weekend exploring one (or more) of the greatest destinations Mississippi has to offer. Here are the top five destinations I’d recommend. 

Vardaman, Mississippi, is known as the Sweet Potato Capitol of the World for good reason, with over 100 million pounds of sweet potatoes traveling from the fields of Vardaman to tables around the world each year.