Lessons from Hurricane Katrina
In late August 2005, meteorologists warned that the major storm they were tracking, Hurricane Katrina, would wreak immense damage upon the Gulf Coast of the United States. Picture a massive storm approaching the coast, stretching some 400 miles across, with sustained winds up to 175 miles per hour — a force of nature that defied comprehension.
New Orleans, in particular, was at risk. With a large portion of below sea level elevations and surrounded by multiple bodies of water, it was vulnerable. A system of levees and seawalls have been built to protect New Orleans from flooding. The ones along the Mississippi River were robust, but those holding back Lake Pontchartrain were less reliable. The day before Katrina hit, the city’s mayor issued the first-ever mandatory evacuation order. The Superdome, a sports stadium on relatively high ground, became a shelter of last resort for those who couldn’t leave.
As Katrina approached Louisiana, I had evacuated to a hotel in Houston, Texas. I thought, soon after the storm passed, I would be returning to my home a few blocks from the Mississippi River in New Orlean’s Irish Channel to begin the cleanup effort — and back to the short bike commute to my job in the Central Business District, leading the digital department at local advertising agency, Peter Mayer.
On August 29, 2005, the New Orleans levees were overtopped by the storm surge. Levee breaches led to massive flooding, leaving the city devastated. 80% of the city was flooded and it would take weeks to pump the water out. The hurricane and its aftermath claimed more than 1,800 lives, and it ranked as one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history. The storm reduced the city’s population by 29 percent between 2005 and 2011. It would be many months, years even by some measures, before the city reopened to anything that resembled its pre-storm way of life.
Myself, and everyone I worked with, became displaced across the country overnight. Immediately, we had to shift from a fully co-located, vibrant in-person culture to remote working and scattered. Amidst the debris and despair of New Orleans, our ad agency faced a test of adaptability. As the head of the digital team, I never anticipated that our lives and work would be irrevocably altered by a natural disaster. My team, composed of digital strategists, designers, producers, and developers, suddenly found ourselves grappling with unprecedented challenges. In the face of chaos, we discovered the true meaning of responsibility and teamwork.
Peter Mayer, founded in New Orleans in 1967, had a client roster at the time of Katrina that spanned government agencies, consumer goods, telco, energy, technology, and finance sectors — along with a longstanding roster in hospitality and tourism marketing, heavily promoting New Orleans. Following Katrina, it became one of the largest independent ad agencies in the Gulf South — driven by remarkable resilience, a wave of clients’ disaster recovery needs, and record growth. With deep roots in the city and a commitment to New Orlean’s renewal, the agency turned adversity into opportunity.
Here are 3 valuable lessons I learned from leading a team through an upending event at the scale of Katrina, only to emerge on the other side stronger. These insights can help any team be better equipped to handle big, unexpected challenges that might come their way:
1. Contingency plans provide a lifeboat amid chaos
Despite the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, our agency managed to stay afloat by swiftly implementing a disaster plan, which coincidentally had been put in place earlier that same year.
We triggered a strategic relocation more than 48 hours before the city issued evacuation orders (avoiding the highway gridlock), which involved moving a core team with agency equipment and data to three locations: our small second service office in the Louisiana state capital, a reserved hotel block and conference room in the city of one of our biggest clients in northern Louisiana, and a third group sent out of state to hotels across Houston. This core, distributed team was selected to keep mission critical work on track, engage with our clients, and provide a buffer of time for the rest of the agency employees to report in remotely based on each of their unique evacuation situations.
Core team members started working in new locations on Monday as the storm hit New Orleans. Although only a small percentage of employees were able to work, it was enough to keep the agency operational. We also initiated a 9am daily all hands call to keep the agency connected remotely with realtime operating changes and track departmental status. Without a plan in place, we might have floundered for weeks.
2. People first leadership responds in real-time
Peter Mayer’s disaster plan didn’t anticipate that so many employees would lose their homes, and all would lose access to the city for an extended period of time. Everyone was in limbo waiting for details on federal, state, city, and home insurance response plans. Home repairs at every scale would take months to coordinate. The agency responded, without delay, by renting temporary housing in Louisiana , open to those employees that needed it, and supporting employees time off to navigate trips back to their homes as New Orleans slowly opened up.
Many at the agency, like myself, relocated from hotels after the first week to other states where they had family — leaving the Gulf South. My team suddenly was relocated across 4 time zones spanning North Carolina to Washington state. Allowing employees to work from any location was the flexibility people needed, and in kind they were mission driven to keep the agency operating and successful.
3. Redundancy is the bedrock of team adaptability
Redundancy, often associated with excess or inefficiency, takes on a different meaning within teams. When our team faced the unexpected disruption from Katrina, the duplication we had built in skill sets, knowledge, and shared responsibility was necessary to pivot swiftly.
Redundancy in our case ensured continuity of our services. We had clients outside of New Orleans that depended on us delivering to deadlines. And we had New Orleans-based clients with a whole new set of communication needs to serve. All our team members had new levels of pressure in balancing work with their new personal disruptions from the aftermath of the storm. Without the redundancy to deliver as a team when one or more team members were unavailable, we would have stalled in meeting our clients’ needs.
Katrina was a real-world example where redundancy made a big difference in our team preparedness and resilience. It reinforced how important it is to prioritize redundancy initiatives. By embracing redundancy, teams build a solid foundation for adaptability, responsiveness, and sustained success.
Katrina reshaped us
Katrina forced us to embrace previously unfamiliar practices. Distributed teams became our reality. Remote working shifted from novelty to a necessity. We adapted talent management strategies to accommodate displaced associates and even expand our network. As these shifts proved successful, they became part of our growth strategy.
The agency weathered the storm by designing a disaster plan to stay operational, by placing employees first, and by embracing new found flexibility. This was the buoyancy we needed to ride Katrina’s waves. What’s more, we were there to help our clients shape their narratives of New Orlean’s rebound.
A heartfelt thanks to the Mayers and my PM agency colleagues for their unyielding resolve and years of support. -RC
Rob Chappell led Peter Mayer’s Digital team from 2003–2012, including a remote role from Chicago, IL for the 2 years following Hurricane Katrina.
