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PASCAGOULA — Southeast Jackson County is expected to begin seeing tropical force winds by 6 p.m. tonight, Jackson County Emergency Management Director Donald Langham said at a 7 a.m. update.
Tropical force winds are 40 mph and can move unsecured, light-weight lawn furniture and other loose objects.
Langham said his biggest concern is flooding in the low-lying areas of the county. He anticipates flooding on the scale of Hurricane Ike last year.
Flooding will be caused by the storm surge, coupled with three to five inches of rain predicted and the fact that tides have been running one to two feet above normal all week, he said.
“The storm will be pushing water, as they all do,” Langham said. “It’s coming in late and that plus the high tide at about 4 a.m could cause problems.”
He expects tides to be five feet above normal.
The flooding would be from rivers, bayous and other small bodies of water leaving their banks and possible flash flooding.
It will likely be over low-lying roads, maybe worse than Ike, he said.
Hurricane Ida is expected to make landfall as a Category I storm, 75-80 mph sustained winds.
At 7 a.m. she was still in the Gulf, moving north at 15-16 mph, with 90 mph sustained winds, Langham said.
He will be involved in a 8 am telephone conference call with the National Weather Service out of Mobile and then a call with the Slidell office at 8:30 am for further updates.
Sunherald.com will update this story as details become available.
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