While most folks are concerned with getting their power on and gas in their vehicles, others face bigger problems — like homes damaged by falling trees.
Pike County Civil Defense Director Richard Coghlan estimated 25 houses sustained damage in the storm, though difficulty getting gasoline has stymied his efforts to get an exact count.
His Amite County counterpart, Grant McCurley, has tallied 20 damaged homes. He asked people whose homes have structural damage to call him at (601) 657-1011.
Also, two Pike County buildings were damaged, as were with numerous barns and sheds around the area.
Lucky necklace
On Magnolia-Pisgah Road east of McComb, Betty Quin and her daughter Deborah Sauls were wide awake in Quin’s house when Hurricane Ida arrived Sunday night.
Around 2 a.m. Monday, Quin was reading and eating a sandwich while Sauls sat in her car in the carport smoking a cigarette.
Suddenly Sauls saw a flash and heard a bang, and the carport roof collapsed onto her vehicle.
A giant oak had just toppled onto the brick house, crushing the chimney and carport.
“I was able to lift the roof of the carport and get out of my car,” Sauls said. “I was very, very lucky. I know that God was with me. I also know that my husband was with me.”
Sauls was wearing a bear-claw necklace made in memory of Tony “Coon” Sauls, who died of cancer in 2018. Tony had a bear claw tattooed on his back.
“God and my husband were with me. I believe my husband lifted that board just a little,” Sauls said.
Her mother was in the far side of the house when she heard the crash.
“I just knew it was a tree fell on my house,” she said. “I threw my sandwich down and called for Deborah.”
The two of them made it out onto the covered back patio, where they huddled until daylight, when Saul’s brother Steve Lovett and her son-in-law Jeffrey Davis arrived. They freed her car, which was drivable, but Quin’s appeared to be totaled.
Thumps in the night
Around the same time the tree fell on Quin’s house, Molly Gast of Roberts Road in Liberty was awake in her own brick house surrounded by pine trees well over 100 feet tall.
“I had been hearing trees go thump, so I knew they were falling,” Gast said.
“Then I heard a big, loud crash and I heard glasses rattling. That didn’t sound right.”
The rattling came from her kitchen and adjoining utility room.
“I walked out here and, oh my gosh. I saw this enormous tree lying here. Water was pouring into the kitchen.”
After daylight she discovered a large pine had fallen onto the roof over her utility room. Three more trees crushed the rear of a storage shed.
Gast contacted a tree-cutting contractor who sawed up the pine and got it off her roof, stacking the logs neatly in her front yard. Her son Bart got busy trying to patch the hole in the roof.
With roof damage extending into the kitchen, Gast said she expects a long recovery. In 2016 her brother, Lynn Prestridge, was flooded out near Hammond, La., with three feet of water in his house and his Ford Bronco ruined. He stayed with Gast 14 months until overworked contractors got his house fixed.
“I saw what he went through, and it was rough,” Gast said.
County buildings damaged
Houses weren’t the only structures that suffered. Ida damaged the roof of the Pike County Court Annex in Magnolia and threw a tree down on the nearby Election Central building, said board of supervisors president Robert Accardo.
Rain flooded the annex, causing major damage.
“Fortunately, the chancery clerk's office and records vault received virtually no damage,” Accardo said in a Facebook post. “The rest of the (annex) was not so lucky. The business offices, that being the county administrator, comptroller, etc., will have to relocate for an undetermined amount of time.”
A large oak fell across the middle of the Election Central building behind the courthouse, resulting in water damage to much of the election equipment.
“The good news is that none of this will affect county services,” Accardo said. “All offices will remain open and functional. The roads, etc., will continue to be cleaned, opened and maintained. The county is well insured and we will repair and rebuild.”
This is the second time the annex flooded. In 2017, four days of flooding from a broken ceiling heating coil swamped the courtroom, offices, records vault and witness rooms.
Elsewhere
Meanwhile, various sheds and barns around the area were also affected.
At Boyd’s Ranch off Highway 44 East, McComb, Hurricane Ida caused roof damage to a couple of hay barns and uprooted scattered trees across the property.
The scenario was deja vu for ranch manager Tommy Miller. In May, a storm damaged roofs and destroyed dozens of trees.
There was no structural damage at Percy Quin State Park, but toppled trees blocked roads and downed power lines. The roads are now open and power restored to much of the park, said superintendent Joshua Hinton.
“Cabins will remain closed until further notice due to being used for emergency workers and power outages,” he said.
He said he hoped the RV campground will reopen today. And Lake Tangipahoa remains open for fishing and boating.
