Posted on Mon, Aug. 29, 2005

Katrina’s fury hits the Gulf shore

From Staff and Wire reports

From an online posting by Biloxi Sun Herald city editor Kate Magandy, in Long Beach at 10:a.am CDT:

“As Hurricane Katrina continued to pound South Mississippi Monday morning there were unconfirmed reports that there was water up to the second floor at the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi and that there was water standing in the Grand Casino Biloxi.
There were reports of boats floating north of the beach line of Highway 90 in Gulfport about half a mile west of the Copa Casino.

“Power outages were reported at about 100,000 customers as of 8 a.m.

“In Gulfport, windows were blown out and the business district was partially underwater. The damage was described by Fire Chief Pat Sullivan as ‘massive.’ Waves were breaking across US 90 and there was water standing in the Gulfport Library.

“The Jackson County Emergency Management Agency had to relocate to the courthouse after the ro

“Wind gusts of 90 mph were reported at Hurley, and a tornado was sighted there about 8 a.m.

“A longtime Coast resident, Magandy said, ‘Hurricane Elena (1985) was the worst I remember, and this is much worse. The wind is unbelievable. I just heard a pine tree snap … it didn’t creak and groan (like they sometimes do) it just snapped.’ ”

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