It started raining two days ago.
Each night we had very strong thunderstorms. I was awakened Wednesday night by a peal of rolling thunder that lasted about 30-40 seconds. and worry over tornado watches and warnings. We had one hit several miles north of our village but no fatalities thank goodness.
It began raining in earnest Thursday. Fortunately in Gulfport most of the rain was fairly light and the heavy downpour was west and north of town. Thursday night the jet stream had moved further south and the storm track was through New Orleans and out into the Gulf. There was a continuous line of severe rain and thunderstorms literally just off shore extending out in the Gulf. For the entire day ominous dark clouds lay low in the sky over the Gulf but we had partly sunny/rain in Gulfport.
I went to Pearlington yesterday to help finish drywall in one of our special clients and we had rain on and off all day. On the way over I almost had to pull over on I-10 because visibility was so bad. Fortunately that downpour only lasted a few minutes but rain continued all day. We had one small tornado hit a high school ball field in Pascagoula, destroying the scoreboard. Early Friday morning (1:30AM) a twister hit St. Matthew's Catholic Church in north Hancock County (Pearlington's county) and shredded the parisj hall, sparing the sanctuary and rectory.
As I left Jimmy Lamey's home after dinner in Pearlington last night, the rain bgean again and followed me all the way back to Gulfport. The forcast was ominous for the remaiming night.
It started raining in earnest about 10 PM in Gulfport and kept on, at times in a torrential downpour.
Thunder awakened me about 1:30AM. I discovered my RV was leaking, rain drenched my cell phone so do call me on the PC(USA) phone. Water soaked a lot of my papers. I turned on the TV to get the latest weather. We were in the midst of a "train" of storms.
There were two "trains." One tracked north of the coast but the other started in Gulf and tracked across our south Mississippi area, hitting the Gulfport to Pascagoula area very hard. Water is covering roads in Ocean Springs and as I write this morning, all the rivers are peaking at or over flood stage or have already done so in the eastern side of the coast. We are safe here in the village but we have had almost ten inches of rain in this storm.
Between about 10PM and 5AM when the last tornado watch expired we had 3.8 inches of rain. That number is at the airport, some areas have had over 6-8 inches last night in a lot of places in the back country. Many areas were taking up to or over 1 inch/hour over most of the night.
The Biloxi River is 4 feet over flood stage this morning and still rising. Our Volunteer Village Manager is trapped in her home by water surrounding her neighborhood in Ocean Springs.
The Pearl River, already over the flood stage, isn't expected to crest until Tuesday or Wednesday, two or more feet over flood stage. The village manager in Pearlington says everything is ok; but she may not be thinking about that impending crest on the river a quarter mile away from the camp.
I'm heading for Pearlington again about noon to debrief our work site manager whose last day is tomorrow. I cross the Wolf River and the swampy area at NASA Stennis between MS 603 and MS 607 on the way over. The water is always only a few feet below the road, It will be interesting to see where the water is.
I'll check the Pearl River when I get to Pearlington, and hope my RV dries out a little by evening.
What a night!
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