Tropical Storm Cindy left debris, trash and dead nutria on Hancock beaches

Tropical Storm Cindy left a mess on beaches in Hancock County — debris, trash, wood and a few dead birds had washed ashore over the past three days.

But that’s not all cleanup crews found Saturday morning. Hundreds of dead nutria also lined the beaches in Waveland and Clermont Harbor.

Black Diamond Construction was hired to cleanup debris from the beaches and sidewalks in Hancock County. They are cleaning up the area of the beach from Washington Street in Bay St. Louis to the Silver Slipper Casino.

They’ll also be picking up the dead nutria, which are large semi-aquatic rodents, sometimes referred to as “river rats.”

An employee for Black Diamond Construction said they hope to have the beaches clean again by Sunday.

This isn’t the first time nutria have washed ashore during a tropical system. The rodents also washed ashore in piles after Hurricane Issac made landfall on the Coast in 2012.

There were, however, significantly fewer nutria left on the beach after Cindy.

This story was originally published June 24, 2017 at 3:36 PM with the headline "Tropical Storm Cindy left debris, trash and dead nutria on Hancock beaches."