First responders assessing storm damage in Harrison County

HARRISON COUNTY, Miss. (WXXV)- First responders in Harrison County are assessing significant storm damage along Highway 53 corridor Thursday afternoon, where flooding, downed trees, and power outages have all been reported.

Emergency responders encountered blocked roadways, damaged properties, small fires, and several weather-related calls as they moved through affected neighborhoods.

Officials say this afternoon, their priority remains checking on residents, clearing dangerous areas, and making sure communities can safely begin the cleanup process when the rain moves out.

We caught up with Harrison County Fire Chief Pat Sullivan for an update. “Safety tip number one, stay off the roads. Number two is if there’s a power line down, don’t go anywhere near it, a lot of trees are going down on top of power lines and breaking them. If that tree is on top of the power line, it could get energized, and be just as dangerous as that powerline. So certainly, stay away from down lines and trees. We had some situations where people were going to cut a tree and didn’t realize they had a powerline in a tree so you have to be very careful. When it comes to flood waters, do not cross a road where they have running water across it. We don’t know that the water isn’t washed out underneath there. Across the state we’ve had several incidents where cars have been pushed out into the water and people have drowned because of that. We have what we are calling a wind event right now; we don’t know if it’s a tornado or straight winds. We got trees down on some homes, a lot of power lines down, and we’re accessing the damage right now. We don’t know how significant it is, we have no reports of injuries, or significant damage that we know of at this point. We’re still in the investigative phase where we’re trying to determine what we have and what we don’t.”

Harrison County Fire Rescue crews will continue to assess damage in the county for the remainder of the day.