WLOX-TV and WLOX.com - Building South Mississippi Together |Hurricane Center 2009
Member Center:
Right now is the time to make your plans for contending with a storm. Your main objective, of course, is to make sure you and your family are as safe as possible. Your second aim should be to protect your property.
Now is the time to get prepared before the threat of a storm. A well-stocked pantry can make living without power or running water much easier. Home Economist Nancy Freeman offers this checklist to help you get ready.
MDOT's 2009 Hurricane Evacuation Guide features a detailed map of designated alternate routes should an evacuation be declared this hurricane season. It also includes contact information for road conditions for the Gulf Coast states, lodging, human and animal shelters, as well as radio coverage maps.
Jackson County residents needing transportation or with special needs must pre-register by calling (228) 712-2333. Coast Transit Authority is managing the evacuation transportation program for Harrison County and will be providing transportation assistance for out-of-town evacuations, and to local shelters of last resort and shelters for pets and their owners. If there is any chance that you might need a ride, register today by calling (228) 896-8080.
In the event of a disaster, if you must evacuate, the most important thing you can do to protect your pets is to evacuate them, too. Leaving pets behind, even if you try to create a safe place for them, is likely to result in their being injured, lost, or worse. So prepare now for the day when you and your pets may have to leave your home.
This is the fastest and easiest way to find out in which flood zone your home is located. Click here!
These PDF maps from Harrison County show the different evacuation zones across the county.
Locate flood zone information for Jackson County properties using this internet mapping application.
Have you been displaced by a disaster?
Do you need to locate friends or family displaced by a disaster?
If you can answer yes to one of these questions, click here.
A young male dolphin, stranded by tropical storm Ida, is being cared for at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport. The dolphin washed ashore on a remote beach near Gulf Shores, Alabama. A rescue team from the Gulfport facility got the call and picked up the ailing dolphin, which is now recovering and swimming on its own.
Ida serves as a reminder that hurricane season lasts until the end of November. Even so, many people thought we were in the clear, even some emergency workers. And while the late season storm may have taken them by surprise, it did not catch them off guard.
Tropical Storm Ida brought just enough wind and rain to be a nuisance to South Mississippi, leaving many thankful and breathing a big sigh of relief. Many in Jackson County are still keeping an eye on the tropics in the final weeks of the hurricane season.
Road conditions are improving throughout Jackson County as Tropical Depression Ida moves out of the area. At 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, more than 20 roads in the County were partially closed because of high water and street flooding. All major and secondary roads are now open to traffic.
Even before Ida's winds slackened, work crews in Biloxi resumed the task of building the beachfront walkway. It was the same story in Ocean Springs. Construction workers building the beach walkway there had to pump away the water left behind by Ida. At the nearby harbor, commercial fisherman Chris Balius breathed a little easier. He and others rode out the storm aboard their boats.
Forecasters say Ida has weakened to a tropical depression and is heading east toward the Florida Panhandle with winds near 35 mph. Ida was a tropical storm with winds near 45 mph when it came ashore near Mobile Bay in southern Alabama on Tuesday morning.
Drivers are being asked to stay off local roads Monday night and to use caution Tuesday morning. The combination of strong wind gusts and steady rains are making driving conditions hazardous. Tropical storm force winds could also down tree limbs and power lines overnight.
The Harrison County Emergency Operations Center was actually rather quiet Monday afternoon, as a tropical system approached the Gulf South states.
As soon as Ida entered the Gulf, the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum in Biloxi launched its disaster plan. As Trang Pham-Bui reports, workers spent Monday making sure the mad potter's priceless works of art are out of harm's way.
Pass Christian leaders have revised an at the harbor after looking at weather data from Tropical Storm Ida.
