MISSISSIPPI GOVERNOR DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY AS KATRINA NEARS

by Timothy R. Brown

Posted on Sat, Aug. 27, 2005
Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour declared a state of emergency Saturday as Hurricane Katrina gathered strength over the warm Gulf of Mexico and forecasters predicted the storm to make landfall anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana.

The National Hurricane Center posted a hurricane watch for the eastern half of the Louisiana coast, including New Orleans. The watch was likely to be extended to other areas.

Katrina was a Category 3 storm with 115 mph sustained winds Saturday. Forecasters expected the hurricane to make landfall Monday as a Category 4 or 5.

Robert Latham, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, Saturday urged residents on the coast to begin evacuations before mandatory orders were issued.

"Citizens need to prepare to evacuate because this is a very dangerous storm," Latham said. "I realize that we have done this drill two or three times in the past few months, but we cannot take this storm lightly."

In south Florida, seven people were killed, and more than a million homes and businesses lost power after the storm crashed ashore late Thursday.

Mississippi's three coastal counties were expected to issue evacuation orders Saturday. A major evacuation of Louisiana residents began earlier in the day.

Latham said the two states agreed to make all lanes travel northbound on Interstate 55 and I-59, beginning Saturday afternoon.

Some Louisiana residents were already headed for central Mississippi.

Nicki Peoples, an employee at the Best Western Hotel near downtown Jackson, said travelers from south Louisiana were "calling nonstop trying to get reservations."

"We are kind of sold out at the moment," Peoples said.

Jeff Rogers, manager of a Holiday Inn Express near busy I-55 in Jackson, said his hotel was booked up Saturday and Sunday. "Most of our calls came in late yesterday afternoon," Rogers said. "Most of the people that we have are coming from Florida, the Alabama Gulf Coast, Mississippi Gulf Coast and southern Louisiana."

Latham expressed concerns about the coordination of evacuation efforts during Hurricane Dennis, which skirted the Mississippi Gulf Coast in June. Coastal civil defense officials reported fewer evacuees for Dennis than during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

Because of those lower numbers, Latham said MEMA decided to undertake a survey and the results were not good. "I have nightmares about that," Latham said.

"Citizens need to know that if local officials call for evacuations, voluntary or mandatory, they should heed the recommendation or order," Latham said.

The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency also urged people to heed the orders. "I'm very concerned about people in Mississippi and Louisiana who have watched these storms the past two years hit Florida and Alabama and may have a little lackadaisical attitude toward this thing," FEMA director Michael Brown told AP Radio.

James White, manager of the Fast Trac 25 gas station in Biloxi about 20 miles west of White's hometown of Pascagoula, said residents seemed to not be in a rush to buy gas at his station in preparation for Katrina.

White said he also was not too concerned about the hurricane.

"The store will be closed when they do mandatory evacuations, but no, I'm not (evacuating). Of course, I'm a little further away than it's predicted to make landfall," White said.

Two coast counties, Jackson and Harrison counties, issued a state of emergency Friday as a precaution. Gregory Doyle, a spokesman Harrison County's emergency operations agency, said the emergency declaration wasn't made in anticipation of an imminent emergency, rather to clear the way to obtain funding and equipment should the need arise.

Emergency officials were working Saturday with a volunteer organization to make sure shelters were available.

The National Park Service announced that the Davis Bayou area in Ocean Springs and Mississippi's barrier islands - Petit Bois, Horn, Cat and East and West Ship Island - were closed Saturday. The Ship Island passenger ferry will suspend operations on Sunday.

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