Excessive rain causes flooding across coastal MS; more heavy rain expected
SOUTH MISSISSIPPI (WXXV) — South Mississippi saw excessive amounts of rain on Monday, leading to flooding in some areas.
Roads across all three lower counties were flooded and closed after around 3-6 inches of rain fell over coastal Mississippi, causing an emergency flash flood warning to be issued for many areas on Monday morning.
The areas hit hardest by flooding were in Biloxi on Highway 90, Sangani Boulevard and Lamey Bridge Road in D’Iberville, and neighborhoods in the St. Martin area, although, most of the flood water has since receded.
“Try not to drive through these flooded streets. Even though you have driven through them a hundred times, or lived here your whole life and that road’s constantly flooding, you don’t know, again, with the washout, or how deep that is possibly getting. As well as, if you don’t have to travel in this, just stay at home. There’s no need to get out and possibly get into a vehicle collision, or hydroplane off into a road and cause these emergency services guys — police, fire, EMS, and our tow truck drivers — to get out there and try to respond to you, if it was for something that could have waited,” said Biloxi Emergency Manager Brian Dawkins.
More heavy rain is expected to wash over south Mississippi over the next few days. Excessive runoff may result in flash flooding in low-lying and poor drainage areas, and multiple counties across the coast remain under a flood watch at this time.
“Definitely keep your ditches clean. One thing we noticed when we were out riding today, many people actually had debris in their ditches, so if they have debris in their ditches, they definitely need to clean that out. The other thing people can do is definitely watch the weather, sign up for alerts, so if there’s some sort of flash flooding in the area, they can get those alerts and act appropriately with that information,” said Chad Brownlow, Jackson County Office of Emergency Services Coordinator.
It’s also important to stay informed by downloading the WXXV weather and news apps on your phone and enabling weather alerts so that you can stay prepared when the weather quickly changes.
As we prepare for more heavy rainfall all week long, Hancock County has opened up two sandbag locations for county residents. Sand will be available at the Hancock County Emergency Operations Center on Highway 603 in the Kiln, and the Hancock County Farmers Market on Longfellow Drive in Bay Saint Louis. Sand bags will also be available at Biloxi Fire Station 9 on Oaklawn Road and in D’Iberville under the I-110 bridge near the marina. Most of these locations are self-serve sites, so don’t forget to bring your own shovel.
