Coast reels from after Isaac dumps rain and moves on - WDAM.COM - TV 7 - News, Weather and Sports

Coast reels from after Isaac dumps rain and moves on

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By Ashlea Surles, Reporter - bio | email

One day after a sluggish Hurricane Isaac battered the beaches for more than 24 hours, the Mississippi Gulf coast breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Not nearly as bad as Katrina," said Biloxi resident Jonathan Francis.

Shrimp boats harbored in the Biloxi's Back Bay for the storm headed back into the Gulf, and landscape crews were back on duty at the Beau Rivage Casino - but Isaac has left his mark.

"You see the line of people needing help," said Biloxi  volunteer Steve Gunn standing outside a Salvation Army emergency food cantinas in D'Iberville. "Power's still out, some people still can't get to their houses. We have people still in shelters."

"Although we had some gusts and it wasn't safe to drive, this has been a rain event," said Harrison County's Hurricane Isaac Public Information Officer Butch Oberhoff.

Rivers continue to surge Thursday, spilling over roads and making neighborhoods into islands.

"A number of people who were in our shelters were going home, the storm has passed, only to find out they can't get home now," said Oberhoff.

Facades of classic buildings were ripped like paper and trees left snapped in half, and perhaps the most evident sign of the storm's carnage: hunks of wood from docks that feel victim to the storm strewn across a shut down Highway 90.

"We have 6 cantinas set up across the coast, some areas we can't get to yet because of rising waters," said Gunn.

"It was still pretty bad, I mean we lost work all week," said Gray Slay, who works in construction.

Roughly 1,000 are still without power, the airport out of service another day, and Harrison County schools and offices still closed.