Over seventy percent of Americans identify with some faith community and use their faith as a means to cope with life experiences, especially following disasters (Weaver, Flannelly, Garbarino, Figley, & Flannelly, 2003). Clergy have been found to play a signi cant role in responding to disaster needs, including providing pastoral counseling, crisis management, and serving and meeting the overall needs of others (Darling, Hill, & McWey, 2004; Pector, 2005). ough clergy play a major role in attending to disaster needs, little is known about how clergy cope with disasters. e purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the ways in which clergy in South Mississippi and New Orleans coped with Hurricane Katrina using a phenomenological approach. Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating and expensive natural disasters in American history (Cain & Barthelemy, 2008). Floodwaters caused multiple levees to break surrounding New Orleans, which caused roughly 80 percent of the city to ood. Approximately 100,000 homes were destroyed in New Orleans alone. Mississippi experienced hurricane-force winds and rain that produced 11 tornados and maximum reported storm surges of 26 to 28 feet that penetrated over six miles inland (US Department of Commerce, 2006). Every county in Mississippi was declared a disaster area; almost 60 percent of counties (49 of 82) received full federal assistance (FEMA, 2005). Estimated insured losses amount to $34.4 billion (Cain & Barthelemy, 2008) and total costs of damage to the entire Gulf Coast exceed $200 billion (CNN Reports, 2005). ough over one million people evacuated Hurricane Katrina (CNN Reports, 2005), more than 1,300 deaths resulted across the Mississippi-Louisiana Gulf Coast from this catastrophic storm. Traumatic E ects of Disasters In addition to the physical devastation of disasters like Hurricane Katrina, they impose numerous psychological consequences, such as posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety (Smith, Pargament, Brant, & Oliver, 2000). e most common response to natural disasters is posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Rogers, 2002). Overall, disasters have been found to affect survivors' spiritual, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and physical functioning. Common reactions to a catastrophic event include anger, hopelessness, panic, questioning of core belief systems, confusion, withdrawal, sleep disturbances, fatigue, and headaches (Roberts & Ashley, Sr., 2008). Harvard Medical School reported that mental health issues continued to worsen two years a er Hurricane Katrina; speci cally,