The Mudcat Report Episode 25: Hurricane Season

The Mudcat Report Episode 25:  Hurricane Season 

HOST:  Hunter Dawkins -  Owner/Publisher of the Award-Winning Newspaper - The Gazebo Gazette, SuperTalk Mississippi News contributor, former Congressional Staffer, former Public Relations for the Attorney General's Office

PRODUCER:  Jeff Clark  - Award-Winning Journalist, Multimedia/Podcast Host, Director for the Harrison County Senior Services

GUESTS:

• Matt Stratton - Director of Emergency Management, Harrison County
• Pat Sullivan - Fire Chief, Harrison County Fire Department

Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:00

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SPEAKER_09 0:30

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SPEAKER_06 1:00

Welcome to the Mudcat Report, community news, politics, and culture with a local twist. Here's your host, owner and publisher of the Gazebo Gazette, Hunter Dawkins.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Good afternoon. My name is Hunter Dawkins, the host of the Mudcat Report. This is the 25th episode of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community News Podcast. Sponsored by the Gazebo Gazette, Harrison County's independent newspaper, the Beau Revage Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Nine Toes Brewing Company and Pascus Channel, O'Dwyer Realty Agent, Stephanie Makowitz, Joseph Kelly, Attorney at Law, Coast Casual in Pascus Jan, the insurance barn in Gulfport, the Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, which will happen the July 4th weekend. And we're always in the U.S. Marine Inc. Studio in Gulfport. I'm here with my wonderful producer of the show, and he will see next weekend the award-winning Jeff Clark. Jeff Clark is a well-accomplished, and we will get our awards next week. Award-winning journalist and the director of Harrison County Senior Services. Jeff, how are you, my friend?

SPEAKER_12 2:29

I'm well, Hunter. You know, I also do some still do public information stuff for the county. And uh as we're taping this episode uh on the day that the remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur just flooded the coast like crazy. Like it was a wild day, you know.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Jeff, our theme for the day is hurricane season. Seeing that we are that we live in Hurricane Alley on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, we are a little bit late starting off the season, which is June the 1st. Today, the squalls from Tropical Storm Arthur welcomed us to the 2006 hurricane season.

SPEAKER_12 3:09

With arms wide open, just like the Creed song.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Give me your thoughts about this.

SPEAKER_12 3:15

You know, um it was a rain event, uh, a lot of uh a lot of flooding, a lot of flooding. Like I saw that parts of Louisiana got 30 inches of rain. Um, you know, it was it was an all-day thing. And then then it got it got pretty intense this afternoon. We were all without power for a while, without this or that. But you know, our cities and counties did all the stuff to uh to get everyone together. It was really good. You know, the the response was good. Let me say that. I think uh I know you you have some great guests today, both of them could give a lot of insight to it. I think uh Chief Sullivan had a very active day, a very interesting day, you know. But uh it's uh we're in an what's what is it like an El Nino? Is that what we're in now? So it could be like this all summer long. Wet, wet, wet, and hot, you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

That's right. That's right. And we'll leave our guests up with that information.

SPEAKER_12 4:07

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

I definitely want to hear it, and we'll get to it.

SPEAKER_12 4:12

All right, and we'll go and be right back after our first commercial break. So stay tuned.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

The Gazebo Gazette is Harrison County's only independent newspaper. Publishing news from Gulfport to Bay St. Louis every Friday. Hi, this is Hunter Dawkins, owner of the Gazebo Gazette. If you're looking for local news without the hassle of sorting through story after digital story, log on to thegazeboGazette.com. Add your name to the digital audience of 250,000 plus Coast residents who already know where to find the stories that matter to them.

SPEAKER_03 4:48

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SPEAKER_02 5:37

I would love to introduce my first guest, a man that is ready for anything and everything this hurricane season, the director of Harrison County Emergency Management, Matt Stratton. How are you after this wake-up call from Arthur, Matt?

SPEAKER_10 5:56

Well, it's been an interesting few days. Uh, we've set some records here with the flooding uh in Harrison County. And so uh we still have flood warnings in effect and we're we're continuing our emergency response. But our our first activation for hurricane season 2026 is in the books.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Matt, now if you're a resident of Harrison County and the Mississippi Gulf Coast that recently moved into town, walk me through, give me your some of your main preparations that you need during this time of year or during the upcoming hurricane season.

SPEAKER_10 6:32

Yeah, you you uh you bring up a great point that we we have a diverse uh number of community members here in Harrison County. We've got um large military installations, we've got people moving here for jobs uh frequently, we've got uh always people coming and going, and even guests coming to town who may not be familiar with some of our local uh uh threats and hazards that we have here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. And so uh I think the first thing would just be uh you know to become aware of what some of the um the local hazards are that we face here on the coast. We've got our our severe weather seasons, usually in the spring and the fall. We have uh the hurricane season for a good part of the the uh the summer into early fall. And uh, you know, it sounds strange, but uh we've had the last two years in the wintertime, some pretty significant winter storms here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. And so uh whether it is uh, you know, this season or that, just becoming aware with some of our local hazards, and we've got a lot of good information about that on our Harrison County website under the emergency management page.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Matt, you know, this may be an unpopular question, and you know, I'm not necessarily sure because of your expertise in another field, but do you believe this greater development of these storms the last 10, 15, 20 years are a lot due to climate change?

SPEAKER_10 8:09

Well, that's something that a lot of people proposed, and I I know that um a lot of people have concerns about, right? So we've only got one earth, uh, we don't have any spares that we can uh uh change over to, and so we want to take good care of it, uh be good stewards of what's entrusted to us for our time on this earth. Uh, you know, I I do think that uh, you know, we we want to uh look backward at our history. We know we have a history of you know damaging events here on the coast. You you think back to uh the hurricane of 1947, you think back to Hurricane Camille in 1969, you think back, of course, to Katrina in 2005, and and there's other events along the way as well, but those are really major milestones. And, you know, the the thing to remember is that as bad as some of those were, they really are not the worst case situation. And so that is the challenge to us is what do we do with the time entrusted to us now to make sure that we and our loved ones are ready for what may come our way?

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Matt, how do people look into the projections or upcoming forecast? Is there a phone development, a computer service? What message you know are you trying to put out to the residents of Harrison County? And I'll ask you another quick one after that.

SPEAKER_10 9:46

Okay. There's really uh I think three main things that we really emphasize in a lot of our engagements with the public, three things that I would recommend as a resident of the Gulf Coast myself that that I would want my family to do, to to to do things to be prepared. And and those three things are first to update your household emergency plan. Each family is unique, each of us have our own special circumstances. What I might need for my family is not really take some time to sit down with your household members and talk about what is your plan, where or safe place that you're going to go in a particular emergency situation. Not all of us have family uh across town that we can go to. So you have to put some thought into what is my individual household plan for emergencies? Uh the second thing is we need to have an emergency supply kit. And I think back uh looking back to COVID really taught us that. Uh, and you know, when we've when we are in an emergency situation, that is not the time to scramble and get the things that we need to get us through until we can go back to the store to buy some more, or we go out to um, you know, the restaurants or or whatever to to get the food that we're used to. Your emergency supply kit, again, is is specific to you and your needs. And so that's gonna be your three to five days of emergency supplies that that will get you and your household through. And, you know, we have a lot of good information on the county website about things to consider in your emergency supply kit. Uh, you know, we want to make sure everybody has water, that you have non-perishable food. Uh, you've got uh other items that you're gonna need to get you through. But that those emergency supplies don't stay good forever. You really need to refresh them, make sure that uh the batteries in there uh are still holding a charge and uh that things haven't expired. And so that's the second thing is updating those emergency supplies, refresh your kit. And then finally, uh is to set your devices to receive alerts. And and through the the wonders of modern technology, we're all carrying these uh smartphones now, and and that's a good thing, but we can accidentally uh in our uh you know, in our uh we we can be overloaded with information, and sometimes we'll start turning off notifications and we're trying to reduce our interruptions. We can actually turn off our emergency alerts without even really realizing it. And so going into your settings, checking to make sure that you haven't uh accidentally turned off your emergency alerts, those are sent to you uh at no cost by the government, and they let you know when there is uh a life-threatening danger approaching you, whether that's a hurricane, whether that's a tornado, maybe it's uh flash flooding where uh there is a threat to life safety, uh making sure that your notifications are still coming through. You can also sign up for your local jurisdiction's emergency alerts. So here in Harrison County, we provide the free Harco alert system, and people can subscribe to that at no cost. We'll update them as the emergency situation changes so they have the best information to make decisions for them and their loved ones.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

Now I know this is a loaded question, and your answer might be different than the next guest, but do you think with all of the resources that we've had, the technology, the updating of technology, do you believe the Gulf Coast could withstand another Hurricane Katrina?

SPEAKER_10 13:49

Well, we've we've certainly learned a lot from our Hurricane Katrina experiences. And uh, you know, whether it is in the communication sector or with uh building more resilience into our networks, or whether it is uh on the government side, uh building more resilient uh infrastructure or water systems and so forth, maybe in the the private sector, you know, the uh uh the electrical companies and and the power distribution and and uh trying to diversify uh so that you know there's alternate means to get electricity when when maybe we've got stresses because of an emergency situation. Uh those investments uh have happened and they're ongoing, uh, but I think at the same time we've also got increased vulnerability now. There's more people living here than there ever were before. Uh people are coming here because of opportunities, but more people means more people in the potential risk area. And so uh we've also got greater reliance on technology now than we used to. You think about uh, you know, at the time of Katrina, we weren't all doing online banking. We weren't all doing a lot of things on our phones that we do now today. And so the technology is good, but we need to make sure we have backup methods and alternate means that if the technology is not there, we can still do what we need to do.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

Matt, how do people contact you or the county for updated information during natural disasters and you know predictions and forecasts?

SPEAKER_10 15:36

Right. So our emergency management office in Harrison County is is open Monday through Fridays during normal business hours, and we have on-call people over nights and weekends who can respond quickly if there is some situation. Uh, anytime they call our local office number, you will get through to somebody who will be there to answer questions or or get folks help that they need. Uh, that is true throughout most of uh our local jurisdictions. Whether it is uh Harrison County or uh another county or some other uh adjoining jurisdiction, there is somebody here who cares about their citizens and wants to help. And so the first thing is just reaching out and letting us know that you have a need. We can't help if we don't know what's going on. And so I would encourage people to get to know their local emergency management office and uh build relationships. We have a lot of opportunities for for doing uh community engagement and and uh delivering presentations or uh seminars or workshops or even training. We have a great uh five-day class called the uh community emergency response training or CERT C E R T. And uh that's a great class that is free of charge that is taught in many of our local jurisdictions.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

We thank you, sir. And the number to the county uh EOC is 228-865-4200. Am I correct on that?

SPEAKER_10 17:13

So our our emergency management office number is 228-865-4002. And uh yes, we we are here to help. And so uh it's better if we can help when there's not the pressure of time in an emergency. So get to know your local emergency management office in whatever county uh and uh and and build those relationships uh on the blue sky days. Uh that'll that'll help us all work together as a community on the gray sky days.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

We thank you, my friend. Take care of yourself.

SPEAKER_08 17:49

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SPEAKER_02 20:09

I would love to introduce my final guest, the Harrison County Fire Chief Pat Sullivan. Pat, how are you today, my friend?

SPEAKER_11 20:20

Busy. Very, very, very busy.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

Yep, that certainly is. We've had already the first part of the season a natural disaster, which is what we're talking about, hurricane season. Pat, what's the first step that people need to avoid when a disaster is on the horizon?

SPEAKER_11 20:42

Uh do nothing. Doing nothing, that's the first step to avoid. You your question was what do you not want them to do? And you don't want them to do, you don't want them to be uh headed in the sand and not being prepared. So absolutely they need to be prepared, but if they do nothing and think everything's going to be okay, that's a problem.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

Sure, sure. If you live in a low-lying area that's open to flooding, what can you do to minimize or stop any damage?

SPEAKER_11 21:15

Well, the the very first thing to know is do you live in a flood zone? Know what the flood zone maps are. Harrison County does a good job. The EMA office does a good job of publishing the um the information on where the flood areas are um in Harrison County. Number two, have some institutional knowledge. Ask people that's been in your neighborhood if you don't have an idea. Ask them how they get information. Number one. Number two, ask them when was the last time it flooded in their area. And it may be an area that never floods, and then you're lucky. Um but get institutional knowledge from people that already know. know what the um what the situation is.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

You know, Pat, I know that you have uh definitely done a lot of structural fire damage and things as such and that you're going through a lot of these disasters. How often, I mean, do y'all do y'all have contact with the insurance companies or are they, because I know they're always trying to to uh either lower the credit rating or increase the credit rating for customers and things as such um what do you have any interaction with insurance companies about you know what goes on with fires and damage and and disasters and things as such?

SPEAKER_11 22:43

Somewhat somewhat and and and my main deal with insurance companies it's the rating rating bureau and the rating fire insurance uh rating um we have a very good fire rating in Harrison County for the most part um it it it's it's one of those things we've done a lot of work and we've been able to get down get the rating down from uh as high as a 10 which is the worst rating down to a six and a five in some areas so we work strongly um to to to make sure that we do the things that have to be done to get that rating down. I work real closely with the insurance companies as far as investigating fires what was the cause of it uh was it an arson was it an accidental fire um doing those kind of things getting that information and and um helping the insurance company get information so we work closely with them on that Pat now would you just making a segue on this chief what you what does the ratings uh I mean how if you're gonna talk to a local resident how do are you able to make the ratings better you know for the fire departments or anything as such do you have to have uh is it the the time length for the emergency you know how quick you guys get to an accident or emergency or is it how many ladder trucks you have just tell me what would go into that all of the above it's the now it's the response times it's how quickly the dispatch answers the phone it is the um um uh the distance of a person's property from the fire station um it is the uh the water supply that we have in Harrison County the better the water supply the uh the better it is for the insurance companies of course because that's what puts fires out so it's all of these things together are a um uh part of the of figuring out what that rating is and the the rating bureau um the rating bureau is actually the ones that set the rate and they come they're a state quasi-state agency that that um comes down in fact this week the rating bureau was in Harrison County and and to be to show you how intense this is we had to take the rating bureau to every fire station and they opened every um they opened every door on the fire truck and looked at the equipment we had and make sure that we had the proper equipment the right amount of equipment and it was in working condition so they don't they do not take this lightly they look at it and they want a fire department to have the right stuff to do the things that they need to do um and and that that's you know we work with the with the Rating Bureau to get them that information and there's a lot of that that we have to gather and we are really in intensive in our in our data gathering to uh and doing reports so that that information will go to the Rating Bureau. Lightning you know chief in these heavy thunderstorms tornadoes like today often create fires what's the first action one should take you know um to be able to not necessarily you can't avoid lightning and you know but when there's something that happens like a fire starts what's the first action you would take or what you would recommend 911 here's a and that may sound funny of course I'm gonna call 911 you'd be surprised how many times people say gee we I think we may have got hit by lightning and then they will spend 15 to 20 minutes looking to see if they did get hit lightning because they may not smell any smoke or see anything and then all of a sudden the roof is on fire the attic is on fire they didn't see it up in the attic they couldn't get up there and those kind of things but they've wasted valuable time if you think your home's been hit by lightning call 911 and get the um the professionals out there to take a look and see what they can find and and make sure that it's okay. So obviously um the the the the the less amount of time it takes for us to get there the more we can save number two is have a smoke alarm system in your home have smoke alarms throughout your home so many people are saved by smoke alarms so many people property is is damaged less by smoke alarms have fire extinguishers and know how to use the fire extinguishers. You know you have a little fire I've had I've been told this many times is that oh it was just a tiny fire and I didn't think it could grow that quick that big and then it did and now we've we've got two or three rooms on fire when they could have knocked it out with a fire extinguisher in just a minute. So having the uh the fire extinguishers having the smoke detectors calling 911 early um never second guess yourself if you said boy I think I smell smoke that smells kind of like smoke then call and you'll be thankful and we'll be thankful if you do that. Chief final question and this may not be a popular question can the Gulf Coast the Mississippi Gulf Coast withstand another hurricane Katrina based on the all the resources you guys have now I don't know about a popular question I think it's a loaded question it's you know do I think that we could survive a Katrina yes I do we've survived we've survived Camille we survived Betsy back in the day and some some people are not old enough to remember those we we've survived the the 47 hurricane I wasn't here in the 47 hurricane some people think I might have been but I wasn't but the point is is we're resilient and we're strong and we're educated to to to those to those things that happen do we ever want to see another Katrina absolutely not absolutely it would just be gut wrenching to have to go through that again but I don't care how many times we get hit it's how many times we get up it's how many times that we that we um that we get back and and say yes we're gonna rebuild and we're gonna redo it now what we need to do is we really need to look at our building codes and say okay maybe we need to adapt the Florida building code which is a much more stringent building code that's designed for hurricanes it costs more money absolutely it costs more money it's more intense it's much there's a lot more problems with it but after um um Ida I was in Homa and down in uh uh um uh Grand Prairie Grand Bay I think it was um a little bit down by Hushan in that area um Grand Prairie I think it is anyways it was down on the on the coast and actually on the on the barrier islands down there and there were actually homes that did not lose everything and were not destroyed sitting next to things that were a pile of debris wow and we found out that those were built to the to the uh to the Florida standard and they were able to withstand that storm and I think that's something that has to be considered that's probably not a popular thing because of the money that it would cost and what it would what it does. But on the same token is that's what saves homes and saves property and that's something that we need to think about absolutely and you know the it's just like today um you can never take any storm lightly you know this was a this was a tropical storm wanna be it was gonna be it might have been it went offshore and then came right back on shore but look at the amount of of destruction it's done the amount of water that it's poured amount of rescues we've done we're still out doing rescues this very minute and we probably have 10 or 15 more families to rescue we've rescued people out of trees we've rescued people um uh you know stranded on on a fence hanging on for dear life in the floodwaters um we've taken many uh uh of families that with their babies and their dogs and and their animals and and got them out of the danger so that is from something that you never can you can never trust weather and mother nature you have to believe that the potential is so great for for it to be bad and you and you plan for that and you and you get ready for it and you have you have a go kit ready to grab in a minute because the last thing that we need to be doing while we're fighting floodwaters and and and storms and lightning is is have time for you to go through your house and decide what you're going to take and what you're not it becomes a matter of get in the boat we're gone you coming with us or not and if you have a plan and you have a go kit and you have your stuff ready to go even in a fire you grab that and you get out the door you've got something with you you're not left with I don't have anything but the clothes on my back. So being prepared is so vitally important. How do people contact you chief for the updated information or during natural disasters or anything that they need to to get from the fire department you know we we have a Facebook page and then we're on the uh county website and all of our numbers are are are there and uh you know they can call my office anytime um you know the joke is that that I've had the uh this cell phone surgically implanted because it's on 24 hours a day and I answer it if it's 2 a.m or or 2 p.m um and and and if you know me you know I don't sleep I'm I'm 24 um anything that's going on I'm out there and I'm available and somebody just needs to give me a call for good and bad I can tell you that I get calls all the time somebody complaining about this somebody complaining about that and you know what we don't walk on water we make mistakes we're human we want to we we we do things that we wish we had done better but at the same time what I what what bothers me is I'll have somebody say you know tell 10 other people about an experience they weren't happy with and there's nothing I can do about that because I don't know anything about it. So if somebody has a problem or a complaint or a question then all they got to do is call and we will address it. We will take care of it. I can tell you this the men and women of the Harrison County Fire Rescue are dedicated to the job they're dedicated to serving Harrison County they're dedicated to serving the public the people that are out there because we live here our families are here we know everybody here you know a fireman you you if you think about it you know somebody that's their son's a fireman their cousins a fireman you know their brother's a fireman you went to school with somebody that's now a fireman you know it we're an open book and and we want people to say when we're doing good but we even want to know more when we're not living up to their expectations so that we can do better.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

Well absolutely and you can get us you can get us real easy just call well chief I want you to know that I really appreciate all the the work you guys do and just like uh just like I told Jeff before you definitely don't sleep because I've called you before at 2 a.m and uh you're absolutely providing me as much information as you can and so I appreciate you yes sir and appreciate you you know the media partners the people that we that uh that we get to talk to to get that word out we I can't reach enough people I can't reach enough people to say be safe do this do that uh what can I do for you it's people like yourselves and Jeff and the people that get out there on social media and say um we got questions and and and you know here's the deal we're all team players everybody's together we're all in this together um you know it takes a village the old thing about taking a village yes sir and we're in the middle of the village and and we're there for one another the worst thing for us is that when other when people lose their property and when they lose loved ones or or or or or family members you know you know it we take it personal we really do and that's just not just not Harrison County Fire Rescue that's Pass Christian that's Long Beach that's Guffport that's Biloxi that's d'Iverville that's the that's Harrison I mean that's Jackson County and Hancock County we're first responders and and and everybody all of i my department a lot of my guys work for multiple departments it's not just my department they work for the bay they work for Biloxi they work for d'Iverville so we're all about the community we thank you chief you take care thank you appreciate you the following is a paid advertisement by O'Dwyer Realty agent Stephanie Mankowitz call Stephanie today at 2285630471 for all your Realty needs and here we are talking about Realty again with our O'Duire Realtor agent sponsor Stephanie Mankowitz let's talk about the tips this week from Stephanie about what Realtors should be doing for you.

SPEAKER_05 36:45

Thank you Hunter as always it's a pleasure to review realtor topics and hopefully it helps people right so what should we do we should we be doing for you the buyer or the seller first thing I would say is and it's in the actual disclosure everybody signs when they work with an agent is ensure all parties are represented fairly and honestly it's called fair and honest dealings and if I'm helping you or anyone out before I can even show you a house you know you sign that disclosure and it's not even a contract it protects you as a person and I'm supposed to explain that for him to you and say hey before we do anything real estate I am licensed I am liable I am here to help you give you fair and honest dealings get the most I can for your house confidentiality I'm not gonna if you're a seller I'm not gonna tell people your bottom line that's a secret so um so we'll start with that the first thing is that we are fair and sometimes realtors get a bad rap sometimes there's realtors that have caused that but uh I know I'm one of the realtors that considers myself pretty by the book and just trying to solve the problem. I just want to be part of the solution right so if you're selling a puppy or Avon whatever it is there's liabilities when you're selling a house times three times ten. Okay. Alright well I would say uh another thing we do we we make sure that the people who maybe they were they've never sold a home before or they've never bought a home before we make sure that we we through the shaky buyers or the sellers buyers that maybe aren't a good idea to deal with we can see problems coming before they start when a realtor's been doing this 10 years and if it is a buyer we're also looking for sellers that might be a problem. You know if we're putting in a really healthy offer and it's like full price or near full price and then we hear there's a multiple offer situation it doesn't mean you panic. You know sometimes you leave your offer right where it is even though there's other offers. So we're making we're weeding through the shakiness and the things that come up that seem unpredictable and one of the other unpredictable things like for sellers is you know they get an offer and it's got 10 contingencies on it and the price looks great and they say they're cash but there's all these contingencies so um you know you're not you're not really aware how much we help you until you actually deal with a good realtor. That's one thing I would say and and we want to help them determine the value that's correct if they're selling what are some of the things that determine the value oh okay that's a good one. Let's start with location you know the old saying location location location all right uh let's start with what are things selling for around you if you're in a nice neighborhood and and you think your house is a castle we all kind of feel like that when we love our home doesn't mean it's worth three times what the market says so people will hear realtors say well the market says your house is worth this and some sellers don't want to accept that no it's it's got to be worth more I've got a double granite countertop I've got a fountain that shoots out gold in the backyard and I've got three kittens with it. So I think I should get a hundred thousand more and we have to rein people in and say I love your kittens I love your granite in the last year in your neighborhood people have paid this amount and though and that's where we start thinking like an appraiser. So we're like okay wait we can go out two miles and look at the last sales in the last year within two miles of this property and we can see what people have been paying. And we also look at the square footage and that's really important hunter because if your house is two thousand square feet and you saw one sell for a million and it had three thousand square feet and you're like well mine's worth that too you're a thousand square feet smaller so I can't even count that house as a comparable sale right when we determine the value is the critical probably the most critical thing we do as your listing agent because that price is the first thing they see just like the pictures and if we priced you so high that you seem ridiculous they're not coming and then guess who you don't like me the realtor you don't like me anymore. So I'm kind of an upfront realtor I think a lot of us are after we've been in a while and we say look in all honesty right now this is what the market says your house is worth other things we're gonna help you with is um determining what is the inside of the house worth um appraisals are going to change next year uh across the country and there will be different data inputs into determining what your house is worth so we're gonna be on top of that. And so if you're trying to sell on your own you know we can be really helpful and deal with all these unexpected things that happen when you try to uh sell on your own um and you know we've talked about sellers a lot so okay I'm just gonna put this out there if you're thinking of selling on your own that some of the things we're doing for you the seller to make it easier is photos professional photos we pay for those a lot of our photographers have drones we're taking the calls because it's our number on the sign so if it's a looky loo it's not an ideal buyer we've got our radar out there so we're taking that hassle you know out of it.

SPEAKER_02 42:55

If you are thinking about selling on your own maybe ask Steph. If you would like to talk to Stephanie to help determine your next steps call today at 22861 or call her at the office and ask for Steph at 228 45242. Steph has the latest information to help you get through the process with reasonable expectations again that's 22861 to speak directly with Stephanie.

SPEAKER_12 43:34

We gratefully appreciate you listening to this podcast and Jeff we thank you again definitely was a very informative information and not only the stuff that we went through today but just kind of an upkeep of what's going gonna happen you know or what to do for preparation for things happening in the future yeah it was uh a lot of information man I mean we were doing this in real time today you were affected by it I was affected by it it was a lot going on but uh you know the the guests that we had on today are experts in the subject and they do a lot to help keep us safe and we're super grateful for that.

SPEAKER_02 44:10

Absolutely absolutely we would want to thank as always our sponsors the Bo Revage Resort and Casino in Biloxi Nine Toes Brewery in Pas Christian O'Duire Realty Agent Stephanie Mankowitz Joseph Kelly Attorney at Law Coast Casual in Pas Christian the Insurance Barn in Gulfport the Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo July 4th weekend in Gulfport at Jones Park and the U.S. Marine Inc. as always and make sure you check us out on YouTube now under the Gazebo Gazette Productions at least that's what my producer has told me and that's what we're doing from now on. And uh you can follow us also on thegazeboazette.com where the podcast will be posted sometime next week as well as on facebook.com backslash the real gazebo gazette or on X as gazebo gazette as the handle the Mudcat Report is available on all podcasts every single podcast you can do anything with Apple products Spotify iHeartRadio or Amazon music under the tag the Mudcat Report so I'm gonna get out this is this is Hunter Dawkins the host of the Mudcat Report now you know the rest of the local story good night