Hurricane Katrina impacts on Mississippi forests

Hurricane Katrina triggered public interest and concern for forests in Mississippi that required rapid responses from the scientific community. A uniform systematic sample of 3,590 ground plots were established and measured in 687 days immediately after the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast. The hurricane damaged an estimated 521 million trees with more than 2.5-cm dbh and killed approximately 54 million trees statewide. Sixty-nine percent of tree mortality occurred in 17 counties in southeastern Mississippi, and 45% of trees killed were loblolly pine trees. Total tree mortality was less than 1% of the statewide population.