As Southwest Mississippi residents awoke Wednesday morning they were deceived into thinking Hurricane Isaac had passed. They even called the Civil Defense office to ask, “Did it happen already?”
In a oft-repeated refrain that has become associated with this storm, the staff on Wednesday had spent the last 24 hours delivering the unfortunate news that Isaac had not yet released his full fury on the area.
“What we will get tonight and tomorrow was supposed to be here this morning,” Pike County Civil Defense Director Richard Coghlan said Wednesday afternoon.
After area officials met for a briefing, authorities issued a dusk-to-dawn curfew a curfew.
After the briefing, officials announced that all Pike and Amite County schools, including Southwest Mississippi Community College, would be closed today.
Wednesday evening, residents expected to see sustained winds from the east at about 35 to 45 mph, with gusts up to 65 mph. That number was expected to decrease only slightly to 30 to 45 mph with gusts as high as 60 mph into the night.
The area expected 2 to 3 more inches of rain Wednesday night. With the total for the duration of the storm possibly reaching more than 10 inches by late Thursday.
Officials said Wednesday they expected the storm to pass through by this afternoon, when winds were expected to decrease to 15-25 mph.
Isaac was downgraded to a tropical storm at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Most of southwest Mississippi remained under a tornado watch, flash flood watch, tropical storm warning and river flood warning.
In Pike County, winds had knocked down eight trees by Wednesday afternoon, one of which fell on a mobile home on Lazy Creek Road.
Another tree took out some power lines on 21st Street and Shannon Drive in McComb.
Coghlan doesn’t expect there to be major flooding, despite Pike County being under a river flood warning for the Bogue Chitto River and a flash flood watch.
About 32 people took shelter at the new Pike County Community Safe Room, which opened for the first time Tuesday afternoon and was expected to close at noon today.
McComb Public Works Director Philip Russell said the drains and ditches have been able to handle to rain better than officials predicted because it has been slow and steady.
Russell knows, however, that the storm would bring heavier rain.
Public works split its crew Tuesday so there would be someone always on standby, Russell said. There will be someone available throughout the night.
He also reported persistent problems with traffic lights malfunctioning in high winds.
City and county officials will work with firefighters “diligently to get the trees cleaned up as they fall,” he said.
Coghlan, however, expects trees to become more of an issue for workers to clear quickly as the wind picks up.
In anticipation of Isaac, police officers and firemen have doubled their shifts.
The McComb Police Department will be out in force trying to keep people safe and off the roads unless it is an emergency, McComb Police Chief Greg Martin said.
The police began fielding calls about the storm Tuesday evening, he said.
