Will Silver Slipper change their emergency plan before the next storm? It’s complicated.
The Silver Slipper Casino and Hotel in Hancock County is reviewing storm plans, an emergency manager says, after Tropical Storm Cristobal’s surge forced a volunteer fire department to evacuate employees, but a casino executive has not returned Sun Herald calls to verify that changes are being considered.
When the water got too high for a casino shuttle bus, the Clermont Harbor Volunteer Fire Department used its 2.5-ton military cargo truck to bring casino employees in and out between emergency rescues in the community, fire Chief Duane Wray said.
Customers and employees were stranded in at least two Biloxi casinos as well, but first responders said they did not have to evacuate anyone from a casino.
“When we get calls like they did at the Silver Slipper over there,” said Biloxi Fire Chief Joe Boney said, “to have to provide service for an organization or company that should have foreseen what 4 or 5 feet of water would do, it taxes us to the point that somebody has to go without.”
Brian Adam, the Emergency Management Agency director in Hancock County, said only the Mississippi Gaming Commission can order a casino to shut down when no mandatory evacuation order is in force.
He said that his office has spoken with Silver Slipper representatives, who are reworking emergency plans. But Adam said any details would have to come from the casino.
Sliver Slipper General Manager John Ferrucci did not return the Sun Herald’s telephone calls about what happened during Cristobal.
Allen Godfrey, the gaming commission’s executive director, would not say whether he has talked to Silver Slipper representatives about Cristobal and emergency plans going forward. He said all casinos are required to have emergency plans in place and submit them to the gaming commission.
“I will talk to commissioners at the next earliest available time, he said, “and if they want to make changes they can make changes ... we will make changes as we need to make changes.”
When asked if the Silver Slipper’s plan was adequate, considering their bus was overwhelmed with employees inside and the volunteer fire department had to step in, Godfrey said: “I’m going to end this conversation because this is not going anywhere, OK?”
Casinos in high-risk flood zones
All Coast casinos — eight in Biloxi, one each in D’Iberville and Gulfport and two in Hancock County — are in high-risk flood zones. Many are in velocity zones, which means their properties are prone to wave action on top of flooding.
It doesn’t take a hurricane to flood roads leading to casinos, as Cristobal proved. Flooding closed U.S. 90 in Biloxi, where most casinos are located, and flowed like a creek on South Beach Boulevard leading to the Silver Slipper, video from the storm showed.
Well in advance of Cristobal, flooding was forecast and expected. The National Weather Service sent out storm-surge warnings for the Mississippi Coast, with 3- to 5-foot waves forecast, by the evening of June 5.
The South Beach Boulevard entrance to the Silver Slipper was closed by 9:30 a.m. June 7, an employee told the Sun Herald for an earlier story. Ferrucci told the Sun Herald shortly after the storm that the casino shuttle with employees inside “got swamped,” so he called county emergency management.
“The way I look at it, if the gaming commission doesn’t shut them down, they’ve got to get people in and out of there,” Adam said.
Wray said the four volunteer firefighters manned the military truck that ferried casino workers from 3:30 p.m.. to 7 p.m.
He said surge was high at first, when the firefighters took essential personnel to the casino. The fire department told casino personnel they would take employees from the casinos but could not bring more in.
“The water was pretty high at that time and that’ s when we informed the casino, “Hey, look, it’s pretty bad out there and we’ll assist in getting them out.”
The surge was 5 feet with waves on top, he said: “We were having waves come in on us and blowing up on the truck. It was pretty choppy on that first run.”
Other emergency calls coming in
Wray said firefighters also responded to six emergency calls from residents.
“If we get an emergency call, we go to the emergency call and the (casino) employees have to stay in place until we get to them,” Wray said. “Our first priority is rescuing individuals who are in extreme danger. You have elderly people, you have people with medical conditions who need to get out and seek better shelter.”
“We weren’t just out there for the casino.”
He said his department will help the Silver Slipper again during storm season, if possible. The department paid $100 for the truck it got from the U.S. Forest Service.
He said the casino hasn’t offered any compensation for the evacuations, but is always doing things for the fire department, such as donating food and water.
Customers and employees at a couple of Biloxi casinos also were marooned while water was high, but it quickly receded once heavy rains stopped, Biloxi Police Chief John Miller said.
A swiftwater rescue team of firefighters and police officers responded to 18 calls of people stranded in vehicles, Boney said, most of them on U.S. 90.
The casinos also have to think about hotel customers when a storm is forecast. Emergency Management Director Rupert Lacy said that Boomtown Casino on Back Bay in Biloxi closed during Cristobal because it does not have a hotel.
The casinos had been allowed to reopen only a little more than two weeks before Cristobal hit after a COVID-19 shutdown of more than two months.
“With COVID and everything, I understand it’s been tough,” Chief Boney said, “But with those are decisions you have to make, life safety, in our business, is the goal.”
This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
