Guest: Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, U.S. Navy (Ret.) — Former Acting Administrator, NOAA

Title: Never Waste a Crisis — A Navy Admiral's Story of Katrina, Leadership, and the Future of Disaster Preparedness

Episode Summary

Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet is one of the most decorated voices in disaster resilience — a 32-year Navy veteran, former acting administrator of NOAA, oceanographer, and now a leading advisor on weather technology and unidentified anomalous phenomena. But in this episode, he shows up not as an admiral — he shows up as a husband, a father, and a Katrina survivor who lost everything to 27.5 feet of storm surge in South Diamond Head, Mississippi. What follows is one of the most candid, insightful, and quietly moving conversations Evan and Andy have had on the show.

Key Takeaways

Storm surge is the deadliest — and most underestimated — threat. The forecast for Katrina called for 13 feet of storm surge in Admiral Gallaudet's area. The actual surge was 27.5 feet — the highest ever recorded in the U.S. Their entire 200-home neighborhood was wiped off the foundation.

Preparation matters — even when you don't think you'll lose everything. The Gallaudets packed light, assuming some flooding and wind damage. They returned to a bare slab. His advice: prepare for the worst, not the most likely.

Go back. Search. You'll find more than you think. Against his instincts, Admiral Gallaudet's wife Karen insisted on returning daily for two weeks to sift through the mud. They recovered 80% of his grandmother's china collection, antique silverware, his Naval Academy ring — and their photo albums, eventually reconstructed when friends mailed back every photo they had ever sent them.

Military training doesn't give you a playbook for personal disaster — it gives you a mindset. When everything was gone, what kicked in wasn't a protocol. It was a refusal to give up, a return to Maslow's most basic needs, and the resilience to take one step at a time.

Community is the first responder. After evacuating to Maryland, the Gallaudet family was overwhelmed by strangers who organized donation drives, filled multiple semi-trucks with goods, and opened their homes. Admiral Gallaudet's daughter's kindergarten class spread the word, and an entire community showed up. "Americans are still like that at heart," he says.

You can still trust the National Weather Service — but the private sector is rising fast. Admiral Gallaudet distinguishes between politically influenced messaging and the rank-and-file forecasters who remain committed to accurate, life-saving information. He also highlights Tomorrow.io and a growing ecosystem of AI-powered private weather tools as the future of preparedness.

The future of disaster response is decentralized. From FEMA reform to private-sector weather forecasting to citizen science apps, Admiral Gallaudet sees a shift away from top-down federal control — and largely views it as a positive evolution, despite the disruption of recent NOAA layoffs.

Data silos kill disaster response. One of BuildSOS's founding challenges — getting data to flow horizontally across contractors, insurers, homeowners, and government — is one Admiral Gallaudet tackled at NOAA. His solution: strategic plans that forced all six NOAA line offices to collaborate on shared technology platforms including AI, drones, and citizen science.

Notable Moments

• Admiral Gallaudet stood on a hotel balcony watching waves break on I-10 — a mile and a half from his property — and momentarily thought about surfing them before realizing his house was gone
• His five-year-old daughter found his Naval Academy class ring buried in the mud under a tree stump on the last day of their recovery search
• Karen Gallaudet delivered a speech to the Maryland community that filled multiple semi-trucks with donated goods — and still couldn't accept it all
• Evan and Andy both lost homes in Katrina — the shared experience created an unusually personal and grounded conversation
• The episode features a candid discussion of "Sharpie gate" and how political interference in weather forecasting puts lives at risk

Holding Fast in Heavy Seas by Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet — available on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0bLNXBBV

Learn More about Build SOS here: www.buildsos.com