Stalled Georges Drenches Gulf Coast

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 27, 1998 / 8:32 PM EDT / CBS

The Gulf Coast groaned under the fury of Hurricane Georges, after the massive storm moved ashore with 175 mph gusts and torrential rain early Monday morning.

A last-minute turn eastward spared New Orleans the worst of Georges' wrath. But the new course put the storm's center on a collision course with Biloxi, Miss., where the most severe winds and rain were being felt hours before daybreak.

Throughout coastal communities in Mississippi and Louisiana, roofs were ripped from buildings, trees and power lines were downed, and city streets were turned into muddy rivers. CBS Evening News Anchor Dan Rather and Correspondents Jim Axelrod, Byron Pitts, and John Roberts are covering the storm from ground zero.


	THE LATEST storm tracking maps.
	THE LATEST satellite map.
	THE LATEST hurricane watches and warnings.

A community college gymnasium that was sheltering 404 people in the coastal town of Gautier, Miss. had its roof blown off, forcing everyone to find refuge elsewhere on campus, said Hank Turk, civil defense director for Jackson County.

In Pascagoula, Miss., a possible tornado damaged the roof at Trent Lott Middle School, but the 90 people being sheltered there had to stay put.

Power outages affected more than 350,000 customers, al along the Gulf Coast. Airports and highways closed, curfews were in effect and flash-flood warnings abounded.

National Guard troops using trucks and boats had to rescue about 200 people from flooded homes on the Florida Panhandle, where most roads were reported under water and Interstate 10 was washed out near the Alabama line.

CBS
CBS News Correspondent Byron Pitts reports from Mobile, Ala.

More than 1.5 million people were told to leave the coast, spurring "probably the largest evacuation we have ever achieved," said Lt. Col. Ronnie Jones of the Louisiana State Police.

Monday afternoon the hurricane's center was sitting above Biloxi, Miss., and was moving northward at 3 mph. Winds dropped to just over 75 mph from a high of 110.

Twenty inches of rain had fallen by this morning in the Florida Panhandle, with 18 inches at Biloxi, Miss., and 10 inches reported in southern Alabama.

"I'm seeing water on streets that have never had it before," said Pascagoula city worker Richard Brown in Pascagoula, where 15 inches of rain had fallen overnight.

Georges was moving so slowly that Harrison County, Miss., for example, could face as much as 30 hours of hurricane force winds and 2 1/2 days of gale force winds. Alan Johnson of the National Weather Service in New Orleans said the hurricane could bring 25 to 30 inches of rain.

CBS
CBS Evening News Anchor Dan Rather reports from Biloxi, Miss.

CBS News Correspondent Byron Pitts reports that in a community 85 miles east of Biloxi, local officials are already fearing the effects flooding could have. "Flooding will be a big issue with the rain we've gotten and will continue to get," said one emergency official. "We went through [Hurricane] Danny last year... and we had almost 40 inches of rain on land. We know what the rain is going to do."

No deaths or injuries were directly attributed to Georges during its odyssey across southern states, in contrast to the more than 300 deaths reported in the Caribbean.

CBS News Correspondent John Roberts reports from New Orleans that residents there are breathing a sigh of relief. Tens of housands flocked to New Orleans' nine shelters, including the cavernous Louisiana Superdome and the sprawling Ernest Morial Convention Center. The city had capacity to shelter only 100,000 of its 450,000 people.

CBS
CBS News Correspondent John Roberts reports from New Orleans

New Orleans, which has an elevation 6 feet below sea level, had apparently been spared what could have been a brutal blow from Georges. Unending heavy rains and a storm surge could have submerged the city had the storm hit there, as had been expected.

But Georges is only expected to dump about 4 inches of rain on New Orleans, Roberts reports.

But a near-miss hasn't spared New Orleans, or other coastal communities, from feeling the hurricane's effect:

Thousands of evacuees crowded 250 shelters along the Mississippi coast. Widespread power outages were reported in Mississippi, and a possible tornado also damaged a business complex that housed the Jackson County studios of television station WLOX.
In Wiggins, about 40 miles north of the coast, a 200-foot radio-microwave tower collapsed and fell between two buildings. In Biloxi, the storm loosened some of the restraints of the riverboat casino Treasure Bay, and the mock pirate ship bobbed wildly.
In Alabama, wind gusts of up to 85 mph peeled siding from beach condominiums early Monday, while heavy rains swamped roads and blinded the few motorists who ventured out.
In the Florida Panhandle, high surf on top of a 5-foot storm surge threatened to undermine the foundations of beachfront homes on barrier islands. Interstate 10 was washed out near the Alabama state line.
And in Louisiana, more than 100,000 people were without power. A tidal surge topped a levee in Florissant, east of New Orleans, letting loose 8 to 9 feet of water, according to Bob Turner of the St. Bernard Parish Department of Public Works.