On Aug 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States with winds in excess of 170 miles per hour. 1,833 people died. Most of the media focused on the New Orleans area; however the worst property damage occurred in coastal areas such as Mississippi beach front towns with storm surge reaching as far as 12 miles inland. In November, three months after Katrina, a disaster team from First Baptist Church Bonita Springs, FL headed to Biloxi MS to help a small church by the name of East Howard Baptist church rebuild.