The Extra Mile Podcast
MEMA Chief Communications Officer Malary White

(Announcer) Coming up on this episode of The Extra Mile…

(Woman’s Voice) I think Mississippi has made great strides, and we actually set a lot of best practices for FEMA on how we do things and the way that we do things now, but, uh, considering those of, those with access and functional needs, not only how are they going to evacuate and how are they going to be successful in their recovery, but also how they're getting the information too.

(Commercial) Hurricane season is here, and MDOT wants to help you get out of harm's way. Visit GoMDOT.com/hurricanes to download free resources. Find your nearest hurricane evacuation route by downloading MDOT's hurricane evacuation guide, which Maps out more than 20 different hurricane evacuation routes. Need help packing your go bag? MDOT's hurricane emergency checklist offers a full list of items to include. Don't wait for a storm to threaten. Prepare today!

[Music and Intro]

(Paul) Welcome in to another edition of The Extra Mile Podcast, presented by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. I'm MDOT Deputy Director of Public Affairs Paul Katool, and, as always, I'm joined by my co-host Will Craft, the Director of Public Affairs at the agency, and listen, folks, we're heading into peak hurricane season, uh, crazy time. So, with that in mind, we are at the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, also known as MEMA, to speak with Chief Communications Officer Malary White, who's been at MEMA since 2019. Prior to joining MEMA, like a lot of comms folks, has been in the, in the journalism world. She worked as a news anchor in both Mississippi and Louisiana. Also have a note, probably from Will here - Southern Miss to the top – so, a Southern Miss person.

Anyway, Malary, thank you so much for hosting us today, and first off, if you're, if you're watching the show, pretty cool backdrop. Can you kind of tell us where we are today?

(Malary) Yeah. Thanks for having me. Um, wonderful to be here. So, we are currently sitting in the State Emergency Operations Center, or the SEOC, and this is the floor where everybody comes whenever there is a disaster, and whenever we say everybody, we're talking about all of the state agencies. So, from MDOT to the National Guard to Department of Public Safety, we have a representative that sits on the floor during the disaster as we work it and respond.

(Paul) Amazing.

(Will) This place is really neat. I feel like I'm in a Mission Impossible movie or something with all the technological aspects going on.

(Malary) It is, it was inspired by the Pentagon. So, yes, very, it is very cool.

(Will) That is neat.

(Paul) So, uh, it's been about four years you've been at MEMA so far. So, uh, time's flown by. You settling in yet? You know everything? Everything down?

(Malary) Oh, we'll never know any, everything. Um, we'll say that I learn something new every single day, um, and every disaster is different, and you're dealing with a, a new set of people – unless, you know, heaven forbid, they're hit multiple times, the same people hit multiple times by the same disaster – but, um, yeah. Four years in. I've responded to, uh, 17 federal declarations since I've been here, um, and then probably over 100 type of severe weather events. And then you throw in a Jackson Water Crisis with, something that we had never done before, a pandemic was something we had never done before, so, a lot of unprecedented –

(Will) Yeah.

(Malary) – events that have happened since I've been here.

(Paul) It never ends.

(Will) It's a strange, strange feeling to, uh, hope for a normal event, you know. I mean, you don't want any event to happen, but kind of, “can we get out of the unprecedented state of affairs for a little while?”

(Malary) We could use a few more “blue sky” days.

(Will) Yeah, or that. Right?

(Malary) Yeah.

(Will) Some peaceful, nice days. Very good point. Uh, so, plenty going on, and you just kind of alluded to that, similar to, uh, kind of what we do at MDOT and with other agencies, I’m sure, experiences. “Jack of all trades”, kind of wear a bunch of different hats. What kind of does a typical day look like? What all are you doing for MEMA?

(Malary) So, my typical day, uh, starts with, of course, checking emails like everybody else does, um, but we're checking in not just the emails, we're checking in with our Executive Director Stephen McCraney: um, “Who has he talked to over, you know, the nighttime hours?” – because he has conversations with our lawmakers, our Congressional Delegation, and just regular citizens, as well, people calling. Um, and then we check in, I check in, with our folks down here on the floor: um, “What happened overnight? What are we seeing? What's going on?” And then, of course, with us being in the positions that we're in, we're checking the news cycle: “What's happening? What are they saying? What are people saying?”

And, of course, right now, um, the disaster, the big disaster that we're working is the, the tornadoes, or the tornadoes that happened in Rolling Fork and in Amory, and then we're also keeping a pulse check on what's going on in Jasper County and Moss Point because they also had tornadoes as well. And then it's, we're August, September, October – peak hurricane season – and so we're monitoring, uh, what's coming off the coast of Africa and what's headed our way – which, nothing so far, uh, right now, as of this podcast – um, but it's, no day is the same. It's like Forrest Gump says, “you never know what you're gonna get.” Um, and so, you never know. I mean, just yesterday I get a phone call and says, “hey, can you come and do a podcast?” And we're like, “yes, we can”, and, um, I think that's one of the, the wonderful things about it, but there's also a humbling experience about this, too, is because we work at an agency that gets to assist people on some of the worst days, worst time of their entire life, and, and, peop – some people who have even lost family members.

And, so, um, a lot of our folks here have either a military background… Um, we have a lot of folks who, former law enforcement, EMTs, so we have a lot of people here it's in their blood to serve, and I knew whenever I got out of news I wanted to be in a place where we are still serving and helping people and, and getting the right information to people. So, you'll, you'll find a lot of passionate folks here at MEMA. What we do and, and the way that we do it, and, uh, yeah. So, no typical, there's, you just never know what's going to happen day to day. Uh, one minute I may be sitting, you know, at a conference table with the governor and, uh, his staff and my executive director, and then the next day, I'm talking at a preschool telling children what we do here at MEMA.

(Will) And I'm sure, too, you know, it's something that not every other, you know, entity and agency out there - I mean, you guys are statewide. Right? You got the whole thing, you know. You don't have a district or a section, so I can absolutely imagine that it's a very time consuming, even just checking the bases. You got a whole state to cover just to see what's going on on a daily basis.

Well, as you mentioned, uh, we're kind of in the thick of it - not kind of, we are, uh, in the thick of - hurricane season. Does the routine kind of change any at all around this?

(Malary) No. Well, I will say this. Um, we do encourage our staff to take vacation, take some downtime right before we get into peak hurricane season –

(Will) Smart.

(Malary) Um, and so I just came back from a vacation to just kind of rest up because, heaven forbid, a hurricane hits. I mean, we are working very long hours. Uh, weekends do not exist. Holidays do not exist whenever we're activated and in an active response and recovery. And so, um, now it's, it's monitoring constantly. We're monitoring the National Hurricane Center. We're talking to, um, National Weather Services in Jackson, Mobile, New Orleans, and Memphis, because we're covered by all four of them. And so, that's basically what it is. And then, y’all know this because, um, MDOT came here, along with some other PIOs from across the state, or across state agencies, so we're preparing in various different ways.

And then, we have, um, our EMA directors, our emergency management directors. Uh, we did a logistics exercise with them down on the coast if, if we have to bring in supplies - what's the best way to do this? And we work with the National Guard because we use their, um, sites as staging areas at times. And just, uh, the other day we had Mississippi Public Broadcasting here to make sure that if we have to flip that switch and do a press conference very quickly, everything's running smoothly.

(Paul) Perfect.

(Will) Look, I'll just sneak back in and just say one thing. I, I don't think, I hope that everybody out there does appreciate and know all the work that goes into, um, these horrible situations and things but what probably is not well advertised maybe: all the prep work, the pre-work. Malary had us in, as she kind of mentioned a minute ago, PIOs, public information officers from different agencies across the state, and told us, you know, “Hey, these are some of the things you need to have in, prepped and ready, and get the information out.” And some, some of it I had not thought of before. Um, great points made on a lot of that information and getting the word out, you know.

It is kind of, when, when the point arrives and we're getting those messages out, it's, uh, there's a lot of chaos going on, so how to get those out quickly, efficiently. Get them to the folks, uh, as easily as possible. Lots of good stuff. So, they are working hard up here, uh, to keep, keep everything under wraps and if and when, you know, the storm does hit, that they're ready and to mobilize everything. Um, what about kind of a walk-through on some of the hurricane preparedness stuff, you know?

(Malary) Yes, so our big message to, to folks is the first 72 is on you, and that's the first 72 hours after the hurricane hits, that is on you. And that means you as the citizen, you need to have at least, uh, 72 hours’ worth of food, worth, worth of water, um, non-perishable food. Um, be prepared for those power, prolonged power outages. If you have special medical needs, if you're insulin-dependent – you know, insulin has to stay cold – how are you going to keep that cold during, uh, a power outage? And, um, those types of things.

And so, we want people to, um, get the right information at the right time so they can make the right decisions for themselves. And so, we work with people and agencies like MDOT, of, “Alright, how are we preparing if we have to evacuate these people? How is MDOT ready to get these folks out?” But we also have to think, “How do we get that message out to folks of, ‘it's time to evacuate now’?” And so, we have, and we've walked through it before, we have different avenues. We have your app, we have our app, and then we have the emergency alert system that we can use, as well, that we, um, practice and put in motion, if necessary.

And people may ask, “Well, why 72 hours? Why that number?”

(Will) It’s a good question.

(Malary) Well, you can prepare and have, you know, seven days’ worth of water and food, but if the disaster is bad enough, it's going to take the state and FEMA at least 72 hours to get all of those supplies together. We got to get MDOT to clear the roads so we can drive the resources in, and then we have to stage it. So, whenever you see those cars coming through to get ready to load up, we have to make sure everything is in order. So, our logistics guys put everything in order. And we have to coordinate with the counties and say, “Alright, we're bringing in 18-wheeler truckloads of water” – that takes a lot of time to prepare and to bring in – “so we can serve the people as efficiently as possible.” So, it takes at least 72 hours.

Now, with the Jackson Water Crisis, we were able to get it going in 48. Um, but that was, uh, that was a smaller scale. That was just one city, but we did set it up. And at one point I think we had maybe five to seven distribution sites. So, we exercise this hurricane plan in different events, as well.

(Will) Yeah.

(Malary) And so, the Jackson Water Crisis taught us lessons. Rolling Fork has taught us lessons. And so, every disaster we learn something new. We bring something new to the table.

(Will) I think you're just hitting on some of the next questions Paul has there.

(Paul) Absolutely. So, we did want to get a little bit more into the specifics on the resources. So, you mentioned the MEMA app. Can you kind of tell people how to get that? Maybe mention any other resources? Maybe social media channels that you want to get out there?

(Malary) Yes, so the MEMA app – and I will say this was my baby for two years, trying to push to get this new MEMA app. Blood, sweat and tears went into this. But, um, you can get it on, uh, Apple or Android devices. Just search “Mississippi Emergency Management Agency” or just search “Mississippi”, and it should come up. And what we wanted to do was, um, it's not just a weather app. It is an app that's filled with different resources of “How do you plan? What is your pet checklist if you have a pet in a disaster? What if you have disabilities or access and functional needs? What should that checklist look like?” And we have all of that on there.

And we tell people, um, “You need to have your important documents.” So, what important documents are we talking about? We're talking about your W-2. We're talking about your mortgage. We're talking about your insurance cards, whether it be health, vision, dental. And you can actually take pictures of all of that, and store it on the MEMA app on your phone – it’s stored locally.

(Will) Oh, wow.

(Paul) That’s really cool.

(Malary) The government does not see it.

(Will) I didn't know that.

(Malary) It is stored locally on your phone. And so, say if those documents went missing, the wind blew them or water damage, you have it saved on your phone, and it's ready to go. But one of the cool things about the app is, um, you are able to pinpoint certain locations that you want to monitor. So, for me, I have family that lives in Lumberton, Mississippi. And so, I have a pinpoint that drops right there, and I can monitor the weather, from tornadoes to tropical storms to freeze warnings, flood, those types of things. You get to cater it to what you want. But I also like to travel to Oxford, so I drop a pin in Oxford. And you can actually set the radius for how far out - do you want to just monitor Oxford? Do you want to monitor Lafayette County? Do you want to monitor even further out? And you can do that on the MEMA app, and you can set a number of, uh, pinpoints that you want to monitor, and it will alert you. And it will wake you up in the middle of the night if there's a tornado warning, but you get to choose. Do you want tornado warnings alerting you in the middle of the night or not?

(Paul) That's awesome.

(Will) Yeah.

(Paul) Can you, uh, can you mention those social media handles real quick?

(Malary) Absolutely. So, on Facebook we are the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. We are also on Twitter, as well, @MSEMA. Um, if you think about it, there are a lot of MEMAs in this country, so go to MSEMA. Um, we are also on LinkedIn, and you can follow us on Instagram, as well, and, uh… We're on YouTube. Uh, YouTube, uh, our channel has, uh, a lot of interesting videos that we've put together regarding a number of MEMA programs. I don't under- I don't expect the general public, and I don't expect our, uh, colleagues, the reporters, to understand every in and out of disaster programs, and so we put together these videos to kind of break it down for the public so they can understand what individual assistance is after a disaster and what public assistance is and what are mitigation projects and why are they so important for people to have. And so, we encourage people, if you do not follow us or like us on Facebook and Twitter, please do so.

(Paul) Absolutely. I highly recommend it. You know, as part of our day to day in the social media world, we certainly monitor the MEMA accounts and appreciate all the info. Before we move on, we'd like to drop some of the MDOT hurricane evacuation, uh, resources. So, uh, the big things: the hurricane evacuation guide. If you have, if you live in the south Mississippi, those six lower coastal counties, please visit, please visit GoMDOT.com/Hurricanes. Got everything there for you. And, of course, our social media channels: Facebook and Twitter are the big ones during an emergency - @MississippiDOT - but just wanted to mention those. All the, kind of get all those resources in one spot for you.

(Will) That's right.

(Malary) And because we love our MDOT friends so much, on the MEMA app there is a button that links to your website.

(Will) Oh, awesome.

(Paul) We need to reciprocate.

(Will) I know, that’s so… We should have known this before now, but I'm glad we had this meeting.

(Paul) There you go.

(Will) That is perfect. Um, one of the, you know, talking kind of further into resources and things that are going on, uh, in the situations where the tropical storm, the hurricane, the disaster hits - hopefully we never have to do it, or at least not in the foreseeable future – contraflow. Uh, kind of a booger, um, but may be very necessary in some situations. Kind of give us, uh, an overview of contraflow if you want.

(Malary) Ok, so I'll give you a little bit of what we, we do on the MEMA side and what we are aware of. So, whenever contraflow is, is, uh, requested - the Louisiana governor has to request it from the Mississippi governor for us to approve. So what exactly is contraflow? Contraflow is whenever we take the interstates and push them in one specific direction. So, whether it's north and southbound, we're going to make all of them go north. If it's all east or west, we may make, push everything east, we may push everything west. And so, we all have to be prepared, uh, from Louisiana to Mississippi, to evacuate all of those people.

So, MDOT, y'all have a, a big lift in that. You have to put out the street signs. You have to put out, um, the, you know, you change your signage to say this is, this is when this is going to happen and, and there's a whole timeline process of whenever this happens. You have to do contraflow, I believe, it's 72 hours before landfall so you make sure that everyone is evacuated, and they're not stuck on the interstate. Um, but then, there are a couple of other things that you have to think about as well. Uh, we have to get, uh, Department of Public Safety and, uh, state troopers out there to monitor the highways. And then, what if people break down? What if people have a flat tire whenever they're trying to evacuate? So, these are all things that MEMA is thinking about, and we're talking to our locals of, “Alright, how are we going to respond to this?” So, there's always the, the “what ifs” we always try to think of. We're not trying to be “Negative Nancys” –

(Will) Sure, sure.

(Malary) – But we're trying to be more “Realistic Rhondas” of real, real, real-world situations that could happen when people are trying to evacuate. But I think maybe you could do an even better job of contraflow because that's a, that's an MDOT lane.

(Paul) Hey, I think –

(Malary) No pun intended.

(Paul) I think you, yeah, I think you did a great job of, of explaining it.

(Will) Absolutely.

(Paul) So, listen, uh, last year, we were talking before the show, we were kind of spared when it came to hurricane season, thankfully. Hopefully again, uh, but there have been some storms, uh, you know, while you've been at MEMA. So, any, what kind of lessons learned from the past?

(Malary) Yeah, so Hurricane Zeta was, uh, a big one that hit - I believe it hit in 2020 if I, I’m, sometimes they all, the hurricanes, kind of get meshed together.

(Will) Yeah.

(Paul) Oh, yes.

(Malary) Um, 2020 though was a record-breaking year. We had 30 named storms. We had to go all the way into the Greek alphabet, um, to name. Yeah, so that's why we had Zeta, because Zeta’s typically not one. That is a Greek, um, alphabet. So, we have that, and, uh, some of the lessons that I have learned, just from the messaging side, is, you know, we were talking earlier about the first 72’s on you. It takes, it takes time to put those materials in place for people to come pick up. Well, the public was really, you know, where, “When are we going to get supplies? When are we going to get this?” And I got a little too excited, and told them, “Hey, it's going to happen at this time and…” and that type of thing. And, um, then we had lines just people all lined up hours and hours ahead of time, which I think you're gonna have –

(Will) Right.

(Malary) Anyway? But that was a lesson that I learned, and I, I had to, I had to text the EMA director. I was like, “I'm so sorry for this. I was just, I'm trying to be helpful.” So, that was a lesson learned. But going all the way back to even Hurricane Katrina, the state - and I say state because it is a state response; it's not a MEMA response to a hurricane. It takes all of our state agencies, from MDOT to Department of Human Services to Department of Health, um, to make sure that we have, uh, a successful response and recovery from these disasters – but, um, one of the big lessons that we've learned is those with access and functional needs: whenever they need to evacuate, how are we accommodating them? Do, do they even know who to call if, because they are stuck in their house, and they don't have the capability to evacuate on their own? How are we helping them?

And so, the lower six counties, they have plans in place. They're ready to execute those plans if it happens. But, um, and, and so that was, we have made great strides in that. And we now have the State Medical Needs Shelter located in Wiggins, Mississippi, which is in Stone County. That was a great, uh, a great asset that we have now, and for a long time, the only one in the country that had something like that.

(Paul) Wow.

(Malary) And so, um, yeah. I think Mississippi has made great strides, and we actually set a lot of best practices for FEMA on how we do things and the way that we do things now. But, uh, considering those of, those with access and functional needs, not only “how are they going to evacuate?” and “how are they going to be successful in their recovery?”, but also how they're getting the information too.

(Will) I feel you, and it's one of those things that, “It's never going to happen to me.” Right? We all can be guilty of that at times, and unfortunately, sometimes it does happen to us, and it's just that whole message of “failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” You don't want to be caught, you know, totally unprepared in this type of situation. It's, you know, the worst of situations. Um, a lot of these you've kind of mentioned and talked about already, but kind of some “MEMA does… MEMA does not… do”

(Malary) Yeah.

(Will) You know, I think there may be some misconceptions, but, uh, kind of walk us through some of those.

(Malary) Yes, so there are a lot of common misconceptions about what, uh, MEMA can do and, and, but there are a lot of legal restrictions of what we can't and then simply we just don't have the funding or manpower to do that. So, a lot of folks think that we are the ones that can come in and repair their homes after it's been damaged. We cannot. Um, and a lot of people think that we are the ones that can easily write a check for them to repair their homes. Uh, we cannot do that either. That's why we bring in and we request the FEMA assistance that we do. That's why we request SBA to do that. And if we are denied, now we do have something in place – we always have a contingency plan here at MEMA as best as we can – um, where we have something called the Disaster Assistance Repair Program.

(Will) Ok.

(Malary) But the counties have to form a long-term recovery committee to be eligible to receive monies from the Disaster Assistance Repair Program, and that money can only be used for building materials only. But the long-term recovery committee works with faith-based organizations or volunteers, um, to help make those repairs to their homes. Now FEMA, SBA, the assistance that they give you is a starting point. It's not ever meant to make you whole, but it is a starting point. And so that's why we, that's why we push for people to get the insurance if you, if you can afford it, and I know Insurance, uh, money's tight for everybody now, even at the grocery store, in the gas station, but that's why we do, um, push for people to get insurance if they can.

(Will) Excellent advice, and you're also spot on about that grocery store bill.

(Paul) No doubt. No doubt. So, before we get into some fun questions – again, this episode's going to air, I believe, August 10, so we don't wanna get into any, uh, too many specifics, but anything, kind of storms on the horizon, or really what kind of, like, predictions do we have? What kind of hurricane season have we heard this could be?

(Malary) Yeah, so we've heard anything from a little, you know, regular. We're expecting kind of an average year. And, you know, what is that? You know, what is average? And so, it's anywhere between like, uh, 14 to 18 named storms. Some of those could be major hurricanes - about like four or so could be major hurricanes. Everyone has their own prediction. So, AccuWeather comes out with one. Colorado State comes out with one. National service, National Weather Service, or Hurricane Center, has one. But at the end of the day, like our boss says, my boss says, Stephen McCraney, “Mother Nature gets a vote.”

(Will) That’s true.

(Malary) And we are not going to be able to control anything that She gives us, and so the best thing that any of us can do is just to prepare. And if you are prepared, you have no reason to panic whenever that storm starts forming and gets into the Gulf Coast, but one thing, or in the Gulf of Mexico, but one thing I do want to say is don't start preparing when the storm gets into the Gulf of Mexico.

(Paul) Oh, yeah.

(Malary) You should already have that plan in place by the time it gets there. Because by the time it's in the Gulf, you're running out of time. You're, you're on borrowed time now. So, you better –

(Will) Absolutely.

(Malary) – don’t, don't rush to the grocery store and get all the bread, and definitely don't buy milk because you're gonna have, um, power outages and the milk is gonna sour, but definitely go out and, and you can slowly pack a disaster kit. Non-perishable food. I will tell you, one of the big questions we always get is “My food has spoiled. Can you replace it in a power outage?” MEMA cannot. We cannot replace it. If you are a SNAP recipient, you may be eligible for that, but nine times out of ten, there is not going to be any type of, uh, replacement program that can replace any of the food that you lost. So, whenever we do have hurricanes, we ask you to stock up and invest in the non-perishable food more so.

(Will) That's great. What about this: is MEMA in any way a part of the, you know, this, this disaster – “I was out of work” or “I could not go to my job for a few days” or, you know, “a week” or whatever it may be – just getting at some financial assistance and that. Is that anything MEMA related?

(Malary) No. So, whenever we were talking earlier, this is a state response, so we walk, we work with Employment Services, which is another state agency. Now there could be FEMA assistance available, and whenever we are making the case for a FEMA declaration, we do, um, factor in how many people are out of work because this disaster maybe destroyed their, uh, place of work. And so, those types of things are, are factored in, but with Rolling Fork, we've had, ah, Employment Services, Employment Security come in and work with those folks and try to help them get back on their feet as well.

(Will) Good info.

(Malary) But like I said, it, while MEMA may be the lead agency, it takes all of us, all of our state agencies working together to make it, uh, make it successful.

(Will) And it's as best as possible, right? And again, you're in a chaotic, untimely, unfortunate situation. But again, I just want to commend you guys and all the work y'all do, helping us stay ready and prepared and getting us on top of things. But without further ado, we'll hit some fun questions –

(Malary) Ok.

(Paul) Let’s do it.

(Will) – and take the pressure off here.

(Malary) Let's go.

(Paul) We can relax.

(Will) Um, so, I'm gonna move your pen over just a hair here. Uh, we, we like to talk about food. We like to talk about music. Um, you do a lot of traveling around the state, as you've mentioned. Do you have a favorite restaurant maybe to stop in?

(Malary) It depends on what part of the state I'm in.

(Will) Ok.

(Malary) So, if I go back home, to Lumberton, I'm going to stop at Cuevas Fish House in Purvis, and get fried catfish, hush puppies. That's, that's going to be my go-to spot. If I'm here, in the Jackson metro area, my husband and I are looking for a date night, Local 463 or Rooster’s.

(Will) Oooh, yeah.

(Malary) I'm a huge Rooster’s fan, and I'm really glad they're opening a location in Flowood too.

(Will) I didn't know that.

(Malary) Yes, they are. Breaking news.

(Will) See, came to MEMA to get my food source news. That's what I'm talking about.

(Malary) Yeah.

(Will) Paul, you hit the next one.

(Paul) Yeah, definitely. I just want to say, former Local 463 line cook before MDOT –

(Malary) Really?

(Will) That’s right.

(Paul) So, you know, bringing it full circle there. Okay, so, Will mentioned food. Public Affairs at MDOT, we also love music. So, tell us some of your favorite musicians, bands, etc.

(Malary) So, if you go to my Spotify right now, you are going to find anything from Dolly Parton, Conway Twitty, Johnny Cash, Beyonce, um, Run DMC, Duffy - I don't know if anyone's heard of her, but she – yes, we're going British now. So, Duffy, um, and then my all-time, ultimate favorite - thanks to my big sister - Alanis Morissette.

(Will) Ooh, okay.

(Malary) Yeah.

(Will) Very good. Very good.

(Paul) That is good stuff.

(Will) What about like, a favorite concert maybe? Have you ever been to –

(Malary) Oh, my goodness. Favorite concert that I have been to… oh! Uh, of course. Uh, Loretta Lynn. She came down to the coast, and it was a moment that my mom and sisters got to go to it, and it was because of my mom and my grandparents that I love Loretta Lynn so much. I did a, I did a talent show one time and sang Loretta Lynn “You Ain't Woman Enough To Take My Man”.

(Will) We'll have that footage on the podcast.

(Malary) And, oh, she would happily hand it over to you too. That's the thing. Um, but yeah. Loretta Lynn. Definitely. By far the favorite.

(Will) That's awesome. She's not a “Coal Miner's Daughter”, but she's here at MEMA. She's doing it all.

(Paul) I love it.

(Will) Switching it up just a hair, what about, you know, summer travel is, is a big topic for us. Air your spare, half a tank, make sure your batteries are charged, check it, you know, get all your things in order. What about like, when all that is taking place and you're getting out? Where's - you have a favorite spot in Mississippi?

(Malary) My favorite spot is going to be Oxford.

(Will) Oxford!

(Malary) Hotty toddy! I've got to say it, even, I am a Southern Miss grad, and I, you know, long live Southern Miss –

(Will) Fair enough.

(Malary) To the Top! But I love getting up to Oxford. I love going to Bouré, if we're going to talk about some more food.

(Paul) Oh, yeah.

(Will) Good spot.

(Malary) Let's do some shopping on the Square, and yeah, that's our go-to place in Mississippi.

(Will) What about outside of the state? You got one?

(Malary) We just got back from 30A, and I will say, the best, the best place that we have vacationed together. Um, and that, that was wonderful. The beach was awesome. And if you don't want to - just a fun fact and just an “insider” - if you don't feel like walking all that much with all your stuff, because some of us don't have condos on the beach, um, we went to the state park, and you can park there for three bucks, and walk down to the beach. Highly recommend it.

(Will) That's the info I was looking for right there.

(Malary) Yes.

(Paul) There you go. I love it. So, listen, we kind of want to wrap things up here, but maybe one final opportunity to just tell everybody: “Be prepared”, right?

(Malary) Yes.

(Paul) Be prepared.

(Malary) Be prepared. The first 72 is on you. Msema.org - that is our website. We've got tons of information on there. Uh, if a disaster hits, we will create a page specifically for that disaster and uh, like hurricanes, for instance. With Hurricane Ida, we even created a Louisiana residents tab for those folks who came over, because they were looking for information. And so, we’re the hospitality state. Of course, we're going to be hospitable to our Louisiana folks who come over.

(Will) That’s awesome.

(Malary) And so, um, download the MEMA app. Uh, set your location so you can monitor. Uh, go ahead and get your important documents in order. Those important documents can be huge if we get FEMA assistance, and they need all of this documentation. Uh, food, water for at least 72 hours.

(Paul) There you have it. Malary knows what she's talking about. Please listen, everybody out there. Alright. We'll just go ahead and wrap things up. Want to thank you, Malary, for coming on the show. Also want to thank Director McCraney at MEMA, the whole MEMA staff. You guys - can't overstate it - great partners. Phenomenal partners. Uh, we want to thank our listeners, our, uh, our viewers for tuning in to The Extra Mile Podcast. You can watch episodes by visiting GoMDOT.com/theextramile. Follow us on social media - @MississippiDOT is the handle there. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Download the MDOT traffic app - App Store, Google Play. We want to thank our editor, Drew Hall, who came to, came to MEMA with us today and does a lot. He does a ton of behind the scenes. And remember, if you drive smart out there on Mississippi highways.