Emergency Response to Flooding in Gulfport

Mayor Billy Hewes declared Gulfport was in a state of emergency as the severity of today’s flooding began to sink in.
At 3 o’clock this afternoon, Mayor Hewes sat down with other city leaders for a recap of the day’s crisis. Gulfport Fire Chief Mike Beyerstedt tells News 25 the fire department made over 50 rescues. Chief Papania says the police department responded to a total of 62 car crashes and cars in ditches. No serious injuries were reported.
Mayor Hewes says he’s proud of the swiftness in which his team weathered the storm. “This is a rain event like we haven’t had before. The flooding was so widespread from the north part of the city to the south.”
Director of Public Works Wayne Miller said, “We have 14 flooded houses, about four or five businesses and 60 flooded streets.”
Gulfport Fire Chief Mike Beyerstedt said, “I’ve never seen it rain that hard in such a short time and just how everything happened just like from 5 o’clock until 10 o’clock was kind of the main crunch there. All that happened in that compressed of a time was just something else.”
Chief Beyerstedt says the fire department also responded to two separate structure fires caused by the storm.