The first bill signed into law this legislative session designates each Aug. 29 as “Katrina Day of Remembrance” in Mississippi.

Katrina blew ashore Aug. 29, 2005, killing more than 1,800 people in Louisiana and Mississippi. The storm damaged or destroyed thousands of homes and businesses.

Gov. Haley Barbour signed the bill Monday.

It does not create a state holiday. Rather, it’s a symbolic gesture to honor the storm’s victims, “to bring awareness of the destruction caused by hurricanes, and to call upon the citizens of Mississippi to join each other and the entire community that is linked by the Gulf of Mexico in a unified expression of faith and hope,” according to the bill.

The bill is Senate Bill 2069.