Mississippi EMA Talks About Mitigating Hurricane Nate Damage by Learning From Past Storms
Hurricane Nate made a second landfall just several miles west of Biloxi, Mississippi, at 12:30 a.m. Sunday, October 8.
Major flooding from storm surge was seen throughout the Mississippi coast.
Our field crews are seeing quite some flooding as #HurricaneNate makes its second landfall.
Posted by WeatherNation on Saturday, October 7, 2017
As #HurricaneNate nears its second landfall, storm surge is creating a major problem for this parking garage in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Posted by WeatherNation on Saturday, October 7, 2017
And while storm surge was a problem for the area, Mississippi Emergency Management Executive Director Lee Smithson said it could have been much worse.
Mississippi EMA talks about how they mitigated #HurricaneNate damage by learning from past storms. pic.twitter.com/9jjIcNUiAT
— WeatherNation (@WeatherNation) October 8, 2017
Smithson used examples from past hurricanes, including Katrina, in which they received extensive damage, but have since learned from those storms.
“As catastrophic as Katrina was and in the aftermath of Katrina, the government spent $3.2 billion just in infrastructure improvements,” Smithson said. “We really mitigated the impacts of significant surge, and we saw that with Hurricane Nate that the casinos opened back up at 11:30 this morning.”
But Mississippi did not get off scot-free. Smithson said that 60,000 people in Mississippi lost power from the storm.
Power outages continue but @MS_Power crews are working hard to restore power after #Nate. pic.twitter.com/nszPytzt4h
— WeatherNation (@WeatherNation) October 8, 2017
Crews worked to restore power and Smithson says he expects 90% to be back with electricity by nightfall.
Watch the full interview here: