The new emergency management director in one of Mississippi’s three coastal counties says he wants to put more effort into letting people know how to prepare themselves for hurricanes and other disasters.

Donald Langham was promoted this week by the Jackson County Board of Supervisors. He had been the county’s deputy director of emergency management since 2006.

Langham succeeds Butch Loper, who held the job for more than four years in Jackson County, which borders Alabama. Loper was on the job during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Loper returned to his former job as the county’s assistant road manager.