Hancock County prepares to send hurricane resources east as Hurricane Sally shifts
As Hurricane Sally tracks to the east and Hancock County seems to have escaped disaster, officials are preparing to send resources like high water vehicles and boats further east if necessary.
Emergency management agency director Brian Adam said Tuesday morning that the county had plenty of assets that could be used in other areas, including boats from the highway patrol and Department of Marine Resources.
“We may do that sometime today if we feel the need is not here for Hancock County,” Adam said. “We don’t want to have assets here and deny the other counties to have them.”
Adam said the storm surge in Hancock would likely peak in the middle of the day Tuesday with high tide and then recede.
For Hancock County officials, Sally’s eastward shift is a blessing. Over the weekend, models showed the storm making a direct hit on the county. Bay-Waveland and Hancock County schools were the first on the Coast to close, and the county’s shelter in the Kiln was the first to open Tuesday morning.
Waveland Mayor Mike Smith stayed up all night Monday, watching the weather.
“I hated to fall asleep and wake up to something I didn’t want to see,” Smith said.
On Tuesday, he was planning to take a nap.
“We count our blessings over here so far,” he said. “We can deal with what we have coming. I feel sorry for whoever gets the brunt of it.”
As of Tuesday morning, 46 people were checked into the county shelter. The shelter will remain open until the county is fully in the clear, Adam said, likely no earlier than tomorrow.
Adam said that people should wait for flood waters to recede completely before trying to return to their homes. Low-lying areas across Hancock County have flooded.
“We have some storm surge flooding and we’ve got quite a few streets in all our low-lying areas,” Adam said. “Be patient, and don’t go in there too soon.”
On Tuesday, Hancock County court clerk Alicia Stieffel and her friend Amber Meranto and their children went to the beach near Coleman Avenue in Waveland to see how high the water had risen. Water had risen to the sidewalk and parts of the street on Beach Boulevard. But that was a good sign: The storm surge during Tropical Storm Cristobal had made it farther up Coleman, they said.
Meranto said she had wanted to come check it out herself because the forecasts have been “all over the place.”
“I don’t trust anything that’s being said,” she said. “Lil’ Sally Walker is wobbling.”
Stieffel had to stay home from work because justice court had closed for the day. She planned to spend the rest of the day paying attention to the forecasts in case the storm shifted again.
“Hopefully everything will be ok,” Stieffel said. “It’s the not knowing that worries people.”
