Pearlington braces for river flooding, possibly as bad as 1983 flood
PEARLINGTON -- With the sun out Sunday, Friday's hard rain was just a memory. But those who lived here in 1983 know the real water was on the way.
The National Weather Service predicts the Pearl River could reach 21 feet by Monday evening -- the height of the 1983 flood -- and emergency management officials gathered around a table to talk strategy at the West Hancock Fire Station.
This could mean 100 to 200 homes will take on water.
Flooding will extend to Mississippi 604 and Pearlington will flood, said Hancock County Emergency Management Agency Director Brian Adam. Stennis Space Center
also could see some flooding and Interstate 10 east of Slidell may be closed and under water, he said.
Louisiana Highway Patrol out of Covington said they won't know whether flooding will threaten Interstate 10 until about noon Monday.
The Pearl River hasn't seen this much water since 1983, officials said, but things have changed since 1983. The water should fall much more quickly and move more quickly through south Louisiana.
The worst-case scenario would be closing the right lane of westbound traffic on the interstate, not closing the whole westbound side of the interstate.
Adam said sand and sand bags are available at the West Hancock Fire Department at 16006 Washington Street.
Firefighters are going out in pairs to knock on doors in areas of town that resident Ticker Dawsey said flooded in 1983, because he was here. He saw it for himself.
As firefighters were being sent out, Hancock County Emergency Management Agency Director Brian Adam advised them not to create panic.
"You can talk to them without panicking them," Adam said. But he said residents need to know that at 21 feet, there could be 5 to 7 feet of water above ground.
Many homes in the area are built up, since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, and those owners will just be concerned about moving equipment stored under the house and the river cutting off access roads. But there are almost as many still on ground level.
Family at the ready
Jack Dawsey, 84, is one of those.
A tug boat captain all his life, Dawsey, has lived in Pearlington's The Gin subdivision on Birch Street -- where many of his children and relatives also live -- since Stennis Space Center bought out his hometown of Logtown and relocated residents 60 years ago.
On Sunday, his sons, grandsons and great-grandsons had a goal of filling 200 sandbags to circle his small home at least three sandbags deep. They put his appliances on blocks and plan to come back at night to make sure his bed is up, too.
"Malon (Dawsey), my brother, has ordered everyone back on Monday morning with mops and brooms to sweep out the water," Dallie Dawsey, Jack's daughter, said. But she said the sandbags should keep most of the river water out.
Decision delay
Down the street, Cheryl Bennett was waiting on her husband to get home before she decided what to do. Her brick, 2,800-square-foot ranch house is at ground level and it has flooded before, especially during Hurricane Katrina.
"We'll wait until this evening," Bennett said Sunday afternoon. "We'll move the camper and vehicles and put appliances on blocks. It's too much to move everything you own out."
Like others in town, she just makes sure her flood insurance stays current.
She has lived in her home 41 years, raised children and grandchildren there.
She has even been approached for the federal buy-out program, but nothing has happened yet.
She said, "If I had been thinking straight after Katrina, I'd have taken my flood insurance money and run."
Her neighbor, Darren Giveans, packed up lawn equipment in a big trailer and moved it to higher ground, away from his house near the river. He stopped where the Dawseys were filling sandbags.
"That sandbagging, it don't do nothing but create busy work," Giveans said. He plans on relying on his flood insurance.
Trying to prepare
Adam got permission to open the Pearlington Community Center, 5265 Highway 604, near the fire station as an emergency shelter.
Fire Chief Kim Jones said once the water starts coming in -- some say early Monday and some predict later Monday or Tuesday -- Pearlington likely will have two islands. One being around the fire station and the other at The Gin subdivision where Jack Dawsey, Bennett and Giveans live.
"About half of it will be good," Jones said. "The other half will get water."
He briefed his men to be prepared for the worst.
"Once the water starts coming in, make sure you have life jackets for everyone," he said.
This story was originally published March 13, 2016 at 10:45 PM with the headline "Pearlington braces for river flooding, possibly as bad as 1983 flood ."