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Hurricane Katrina

Managing a disaster

Mississippi recruited a native son with a stellar record in the business world to lead its comeback from damage done by Katrina. So far, that move seems to have made all the difference.

By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published November 13, 2005

GULFPORT, Miss. - There was fire in Jim Barksdale's voice, but bags under his eyes.

For a week, the Mississippi native and legendary leader of Netscape Communications Corp. had pulled all-nighters with hundreds of architects and designers, brainstorming plans for rebuilding the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

Now, as chairman of Gov. Haley Barbour's recovery commission, the 62-year-old retired corporate superstar was launching a series of town hall meetings to gather public response.

Filling folding chairs in the Orange Grove Community Center and going triple-deep along the walls were young, old, the well-dressed and the worker, the homeless and home-damaged. All looking for hope.

Barksdale, in a blue blazer, white oxford shirt and khaki pants, his gray hair slightly shaggy, hunched over a lectern and reminded the audience that a commission had recommended changes after Hurricane Camille hit the area in 1969.

"The recommendations got politicized and minimized and met with passive obstruction. That's saying no with a grin," said Barksdale, a trace of Mississippi in his voice. "It will be different this time."

It was less than eight weeks since Katrina wiped the slate clean along nearly 80 miles of Mississippi coastline, tossing mammoth casino barges inland like Tinkertoys, sweeping antebellum mansions into the sea, eliminating entire neighborhoods. It was seven weeks since Barbour asked Barksdale, born and raised 160 miles north in Jackson, to head the state's rebuilding efforts. This despite the fact that Barksdale tied with actor Morgan Freeman as the biggest supporter of Barbour's Democratic opponent in the 2003 election.

Barbour said Barksdale was his first choice for the job.

"Jim's a visionary with proven management skills - a rare combination." Barbour said via e-mail. "Moreover, he's a Mississippian who has repeatedly demonstrated his love for our state."

The executive who sold Netscape to AOL for $10.2-billion, spun McCaw Wireless Communications into a nationwide network and perfected the art of overnight delivery at Federal Express wasted no time.

For his top lieutenants, Barksdale tapped the president of Mississippi Power, the publisher of the Gulfport/Biloxi Sun Herald, a former shipyard executive who is chairman of the state's gaming commission and the head of a billion-dollar poultry business.

Then Barksdale invited Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi NAACP, to join the team. Johnson, a Jackson lawyer, said Barksdale has tried to make the rebuilding effort as inclusive as possible, with hundreds of local residents serving on the commission's 17 issues committees.

"His quote has always been, "The rich will take care of themselves. It's the most vulnerable we should be most concerned about,"' Johnson said. "That approach for me is enlightening."

Barksdale, who became a major-league philanthropist after making $700-million on Netscape's sale in 1999, donated $1-million to the commission's efforts. A foundation run by Knight Ridder, owner of the Sun Herald, also put up $1-million. "Nobody can get mad at us for using state money on this," said Barksdale, who, like all commission members, receives no pay for his work. "We have no conflicts." (Barksdale owns homes in Jackson and Aspen, Colo., but says he has no properties or investments on the Mississippi Coast.)

In early organizational meetings, the head of the Mississippi Development Authority suggested bringing in Andres Duany, the Miami architect who became famous in 1980 with the development of Seaside. Duany immediately signed on, arriving in Jackson for a meeting two weeks after Katrina. David Hardy, a Gulfport architect, said he was invited to the gathering, his first encounter with Barksdale.

"I remember being asked for an opinion on something and trying to respond tactfully, and Jim said, "Oh bulls---. Tell us what you really think,"' Hardy said. "Here I'd known him all of five minutes, and he just laid it out on the table."

Despite its business-centric leadership, the commission's first step was to gather creative types for six days of intense brainstorming. Their charge: Design a Gulf Coast that avoids the haphazard, honky-tonk development of the past and exploits the best of the area's heritage. More than 200 architects and designers gathered for the design extravaganza, held at Biloxi's Isle of Capri casino, which had electricity but few other amenities.

"Our motto was "no sniveling,"' said Barksdale, who stayed at the battered hotel along with the visiting experts, many of whom worked for free or at greatly reduced rates. "I told them, "If you don't like the food, I don't want to hear about it."'

Barksdale needn't have worried about world-renowned architects acting like prima donnas. Divided into 11 teams, one for each of the coastal towns most affected by Katrina, they picked their way through storm-shattered communities, talking to officials and residents. Then, like a bunch of overcaffeinated college kids, they stayed up until the early morning hours, sketching plans for moving roadways, building parks, creating towns that encourage walking and discourage sprawl.

Barksdale said it reminded him of the heydays at Netscape, when he had to order security to bar the doors one day a month to ensure his nerd-force took time off.

"Back then we were trying to crank out more software, and it was fun," he said. "Here, the deadlines are different because people are trying to get their lives back in order."

But there's a vast difference between coming up with a solution and implementing it. And during the town hall meetings, Barksdale was acutely aware that he was asking people to think beyond immediate needs such as getting a FEMA trailer or replacing a roof. He deftly soft-pedaled the designers' proposals as mere suggestions.

"We have no authority," Barksdale told a standing-room-only audience in late October in Gautier. "If you want what you've always got, have at it. We're here to give you some tools to rebuild. Then we'll bust it to get it done."

Barksdale defused potential resistance by saying he had advised visiting architects not to call themselves "outside experts" but rather outsiders who may have some expertise. "And if you don't understand their accents," Barksdale said slyly, "just play like you do."

Ricky Mathews, publisher of the Sun Herald, said Barksdale was immediately attuned to the delicate political role the commission would play, encouraging nearly a dozen often fractious communities and hundreds of local officials to think regionally.

"He recognized their incredible pride and diversity and their desire to control their own destinies, but their need for help," Mathews said. "He quickly picked up on the cultural complexion of this community and brought it into his language."

After the Gulfport meeting, Barksdale was cornered by a woman worried that her family's home on casino row - reduced by Katrina to rubble - would be taken during redevelopment. Barksdale had acknowledged that rebuilding would inevitably mean conflicts.

"We have the juxtaposition of two great American traditions here," he said, "democracy and personal property rights. And that's a hard place to be."

Much of the Gulf Coast's rebuilding efforts will hinge on the designation of new flood zones, a process that could take a minimum of 18 months. But Barksdale doesn't point any fingers at the federal bureaucracy, even as his panel draws criticism - for its methods and priorities.

"I've already heard, "Why'd you spend all that time on charrettes on the coast and not plan something for my town?,"' Barksdale said. "I tell them, "The good news is your town was not overrun by 22 feet of water."'

In Bay St. Louis, one of the communities hardest hit by the storm, angry residents had little patience for long-range plans. At a late October meeting, held at a storm-gutted church, some residents were still living in tents, worried about finding their next meal.

A lot of Gulf Coast residents are close to financial ruin, Mathews said. "And if something doesn't happen to allow them to have some economic viability quickly, they'll never have what they had before," he said.

Barksdale, who was not at the Bay St. Louis meeting, said it will take the will of the people and money - most of it from private developers - to rebuild the Mississippi coast to something better than before.

And the man who helped turn concepts as diverse as a Web browser, wireless service and overnight deliveries into major moneymakers refuses to worry about financing.

"I started three companies," he said. "And if we sat around and worried where the money was coming from, it never would have happened."

Kris Hundley can be reached at hundley@sptimes.com or 727 892-2996.

[Last modified November 13, 2005, 02:56:59]