Storm creates problems for East Biloxi residents

As rain continues to pour down throughout Harrison County, residents living off the torn up roads of East Biloxi are getting drenched with problems.
News 25’s Gina Tomlinson ventured out to where the $122 million infrastructure project is underway and gives us a closer look.
When Biloxi resident Dorthy Shelby glazed off her front porch, the street she lived on for 60 years, looked more like a lake. “I need a little light boat to get to my car.”
The frequent flooding in the neighborhood was so bad at one point the 70-year-old resident says she had to scale the fence just to get to her doorstep. “When a hard rain comes, it stays for days. I can’t go down Main Street, it’s flooded.”
Standing water collected at the corner of East Main and Murray Street Thursday, the intersection in the middle of the city’s $122 million infrastructure project. The heavy rainfall from the storm causing even more of a problem for residents already fed up with the seemingly never ending road construction.
Barber Shop Manager Robert Harris says even with dependable cliental, the flooding and construction is slowing down business. “A lot of people don’t want to come down these streets, you know, muddy, bumpy, flooding.”
During times like this, the residents say they’ve seen the water get up to four or five inches deep. “Been through Katrina and everything so I know this time of year we’re going to expect this, but with these streets like this it just adds salt to the wound,” said Harris.
Oscar Renda will have more workers on duty as the storm moves through the Coast. Officials say two additional pumps will be on standby to help drain water from the road, a drift in the right direction according to Biloxi City Councilman Felix Gines. “I’m hoping that we can look at some different avenues and maybe get this thing speeded up because right now, going into our fourth year, it’s a little too much to ask for our residents.”