Officials call Ida a good practice run

Storm allowed plans to be tested with minimum threat

By MELISSA M. SCALLAN and KAREN NELSON - Sun Herald

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Emergency officials in South Mississippi said Tuesday that Tropical Storm Ida gave them a chance to test their hurricane plans without the threat of serious, widespread damage.

Ida staggered onshore at Dauphin Island, Ala., about 5:40 a.m. Tuesday with 45-mph winds, but coastal areas from Louisiana to Pensacola began feeling her effects early Monday afternoon when the wind and rain began.

Eastern Jackson County experienced wind gusts and a north wind strong enough to create whitecaps in the Pascagoula and Escatawpa rivers from midday until after dark.

JAMES EDWARD BATES/SUN HERALD James Hester, right, talks with a crew from Mississippi Power in front of his Biloxi home. Hester III says he’s just thankful to be alive after an oak tree slammed into the bedroom where he was sleeping with his 7-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.’

The storm flooded low-lying neighborhood and roads from Bay St. Louis to Moss Point, but officials said overall there was little storm damage. The three power companies combined reported just over 1,000 customers who lost electricity during the storm, but most power was restored by late morning or early afternoon.

Rupert Lacy, emergency management director for Harrison County, said while no one wants a storm, Ida provided good practice for testing planning and response for storms without the threat of serious damage.

“We haven’t exercised a storm at all this year, so from that perspective it was good,” he said. “It was small enough that everybody became aware of it, but they didn’t become overzealous.

“We knew we were going to have some flooding issues, but we didn’t pull any triggers we didn’t need to.”

Ida was Donald Langham’s first as Jackson County’s new emergency management director. He said he learned from the experience.

Ida grew to be a Category 2 hurricane in the Gulf, but high wind shear and cool water helped knock her down to tropical-storm strength by early Monday. South Mississippi had winds between 20 and 30 mph throughout the night Monday with gusts near 50 mph. The north winds and cloudy skies persisted throughout the day Tuesday all along the Coast.

The area received about 3 inches of rain, and seas were between 3 and 5 feet above normal, officials said.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency reported flooded roads and downed trees and limbs in the three coastal counties and in Forrest and Wayne counties. In Jackson County, flood waters closed 20 to 25 roads. About six homes on the Coast were damaged from Ida. A tree fell on a home in Biloxi, but there were no injuries. At 6 a.m. a tree fell near a bayou in Vancleave and knocked out power to 350 homes, Jackson County officials said.

Four shelters opened across the three coastal counties and housed about 40 people total, but by 10 a.m. Tuesday all of the shelters were closed.

MEMA Director Mike Womack said Ida wasn’t just a practice run.

“It was more than a rehearsal,” he said. “It’s more than a plan when you have to convince people to stay out of the weather. We did have some issues.”

Womack spoke to Alabama’s emergency director and learned that state will have to call in damage -assessment teams from FEMA.

“We could easily have gotten the amount of damage where we would have had to do damage assessments,” he said. “If that storm had tracked further west, we could have seen more damage. This was about the same level of damage that you get from a big thunderstorm.”

Lacy agreed. “It was late season, so it took some people off guard,” he said. “I think it taught people you have to be prepared for all hazards in all seasons.”