Jackson County EOC begins shut down in wake of Ida

By KAREN NELSON - klnelson@sunherald.com

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PASCAGOULA — Jackson County closed its hurricane evacuation shelter in Gautier at 7 a.m., released the two National Guard units that had been on standby overnight, tied loose ends and ended its emergency operations for Ida around 10 a.m.

During the night, there had been scattered power outages, flooding on 20 to 25 roads and some trees and limbs down, but no major highways, roads or bridges were block by the tropical storm that came ashore this morning.

Jackson County Emergency Management Director Donald Langham called the event a good practice run. It was his first hurricane as the county’s director, taking over from Butch Loper.

Tree falls on Biloxi home during Tropical Storm Ida

JAMES EDWARD BATES/SUN HERALD James Hester III of Biloxi says he's just thankful to be alive after an oak tree slammed into the bedroom where he was sleeping with his seven-year-old son James Hester IV. Hester says the tree fell before midnight, knocking he and his son out of the bed. 'It knocked us both out of bed, onto the floor. It was very tramatic. We're just thankful to be alive.'

All schools in the county were closed today, as were some businesses. Seven people chose to use the Red Cross shelter at the Gautier Convention Center.

At 6 a.m., a tree fell near a bayou in Vancleave and knocked out power to 350 of Singing River Electric’s customers. But repairs were under way quickly, Langham said.

“No injuries or damage to structures were reported,” he said at 10 a.m.

He said that at that time, wind was still gusting at 15 to 20 mph at the Emergency Operations Center in downtown Pascagoula.

The strongest wind gust recorded at the EOC was 47 mph at 10:30 p.m. Monday. Sustained winds ranged from 20 to 30 mph through the night, he said. Seas were 4 1/2 to 5 feet above normal at 2:30 a.m. Recorded rainfall in the 24-hour period was a little over three inches.

Langham said he had two National Guard units, one in Pascagoula at the armory and one in the Ocean Springs library near City Hall, ready to roll if needed for rescue or debris removal. They remained on alert until daylight, then he released them at 7 a.m. They received no calls for assistance.

About a half-dozen county employees spent the night at the EOC taking calls and logging information. County road crews spread several truckloads of sand and helped with sand bag materials.

The Road Department crews were on standby all night, Langham said, and went out on several calls to clear roads from fallen trees. There was more than one tree down on Larue Road near Latimer.

Langham said he was glad that all the schools in the county decided to close today. He said that the buses in the rural areas of the county would have had to be on the roads especially early this morning, when wind gusts were still tricky to maneuver.