Mississippi counts blessings as weakened storm hits coast

GULFPORT, Miss. — Hurricane Gustav lashed South Mississippi Monday but spared Coast residents the Katrina-style pummeling of three years and three days earlier.

Even so, today public officials will begin assessing what could be millions in damage to public piers, harbors and utilities either under construction or recently rebuilt. Many residents also face the task of cleaning out flooded homes.

"We've gotten hammered," said Long Beach Alderman Allen Holder Jr.

Once again, storm surge proved the biggest foe. Sustained winds barely hit tropical-storm status of 40 mph, with gusts of up to 60 mph. The National Hurricane Center reported that storm surge ranged from 11 feet in Waveland to 6.5 feet in Jackson County.

The small community of Pearlington, nearest the Louisiana line, reported a 19-foot surge that flooded about 100 homes, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

The flooding is not over. Officials in Harrison County warned that rivers would crest above flood stage today.

Several casinos, which feed the coast's economy and tourism industry, flooded for the second time in three years.

In Biloxi, several feet of storm surge flooded the lobbies of Grand Casino and Hard Rock, while the Beau Rivage south of the beach highway reported 9 feet of water in its underground parking garage.

New elevation requirements and permission to build north of the beach highway in Harrison County followed Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the industry.

"I do have some concern about the casinos; they've taken a hit here and there," Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway said Monday evening. "With them able to come onshore and put their facilities to different heights, I think it will be all right."

By Monday evening, Pass Christian Mayor Chipper McDermott was feeling frayed as he dealt with flooding in a town struggling to come back from Katrina.

"The bayous, the rivers and the bay, they were rising when the Gulf was receding," McDermott said.

Residents and officials bemoaned new facilities lost: the Ken Combs Pier in Gulfport and improvements to harbors in Gulfport, Long Beach and other cities. The status of new or repaired water or sewer systems also is in question in some areas. One piece of good news: The new pier and pavilion where the historic Biloxi schooners dock apparently withstood the storm.

Holder said improvements at the Long Beach harbor were underwater. He also reported that a sailboat sat on U.S. Highway 90 near a rebuilt Waffle House.

Alderman Charlie Boggs and family members, including Boggs' elderly father, had to be rescued Monday morning from Boggsdale, their family compound south of the tracks.

Major local thoroughfares were reported impassable due to flooding in all three coast counties. The storm uprooted trees and downed power lines. Gustav left 92,571 without power statewide.