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The Community Partners are a critical component of the Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI) – their contributions as the public and private sectors bring real-world experience to the table – they are the authors of best practice and lessons learned – they are reality. “Reality” has struck these Community Partners time and again. Natural disasters do not limit themselves to city boundaries -- they are likely to strike broad expanses, encompassing many communities within varied regions.

Gulfport, Mississippi and the Gulf Coast Area

Mississippi’s Gulf Coast is home to small, quaint communities, median-populated townships, and large municipalities. Among the latter is the City of Gulfport, which was incorporated in July 1898 and has been a working seaport since 1902. A hub of business and commercial activity, Gulfport is the location of the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport, the Mississippi State Port Authority and the Bernard Bayou Industrial District, which includes diversified industries and shipbuilders. Gulfport also emphasizes tourism, with some 6.7 miles of man-made white sandy beaches along the Gulf of Mexico, and is home to colleges and major retail centers. Gulfport is the second largest city in Mississippi with a land area just over 62 square miles and population exceeding 70,000. Gulfport and its immediate neighbor Biloxi are the two county seats of Harrison County, the middle of the three counties lining the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Gulfport became a CARRI partner community in 2007 at the invitation of Mayor Brent Warr. The CARRI Gulfport Team initially interviewed local government officials and representatives from the nonprofit, faith-based, and business sectors to assess the interests and concerns of key stakeholders throughout the community. Community members were eager to share the community’s current experiences with resilience and to help develop and share the essential benchmarks, tools and techniques that any community should utilize to enhance its resilience. Based on the initial assessment, representatives from agencies, organizations, and companies that play critical roles in the community were invited to serve on the CARRI Gulfport Advisory Group. Using their knowledge of the issues facing the community and experience preparing for, responding to, and recovering from Hurricane Katrina, the Advisory Group identified approximately thirty-five candidate focus areas that, if addressed effectively, could lead to enhanced community resilience.

In June 2008 Advisory Group members collaboratively selected six priority areas on which to focus development of action plans or “resilience roadmaps.” In September 2008, teams of community stakeholders convened to develop resilience roadmaps for three of the areas. The Advisory Group reviewed drafts of these three roadmaps in December 2008 and began to implement selected recommendations in 2009 (link below to final versions of the roadmaps). First, they supported the concept of an educational conference to bring attention to cutting-edge resilient building materials and techniques. Another focus is developing a comprehensive inventory of the community organizations involved in disaster planning, response, and recovery.

Concurrent with building local resilience, the CARRI Gulfport Advisory Group has emphasized the importance of sharing the Gulf Coast’s own critical lessons learned about resilience. Four Gulf Coast community leaders attended the CARRI Community Forum in April 2009 to share key lessons with CARRI program staff and leaders of the other partner communities. The CARRI Gulfport Team is also working with Advisory Group members and many others in the community to develop a series of resilience lessons to share with other communities through this website.

CARRI Gulfport Events and Publications:

Gulfport Community News and Links:

    Gulfport