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Flood
with 26 inches of rain1
BY ELLIS C. CUEVAS
Rivers, bayous, canals and ditches just could not handle some 26 1/2 plus inches of rainfall Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Water was rising fast, even into homes on pilings in the Jourdan River Shores area and along the river, Gloria Tartavoulle, Hancock County heriffs Office Telecommuni->tions coordinator said.
At 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Tartavoulle said, “I have five dispatchers working and we cannot keep up with the telephone calls.”
“People are now beginning to panic as the waters continue to rise,” Tartavoulle said.	!
On Wednesday morning, Hancock County Fire Marshall Richard Pate, who was coordinating rescue efforts from the Jourdan River bridge on
Highway 603 by Jourdan River Estates, was asking rescue personnel to urge persons still in the homes of the flooded subdivision to come out while the waters were not too treacherous.
Hancock County Sheriffs deputies, Mississippi State Troopers, Bureau of Marine Resources officers, Wildlife & Fisheries officers, Auxiliary Deputies, Volunteer Firefight-p and volunteers with boats, v^ere all lending a hand in the rescue effort.
Hancock County Civil Defense Director Robert Boudin on Wcnkiesday reported
Volunteers helped rescue stranded residents of the Jourdan River subdivision. (Echo staff photo by Ellis C. Cuevas)
Su
the official rainfall for Monday night through Wednesday morning in the county was 26 1/2 inches.
The normal yearly rainfall for the area is about 60-65 inches.
Persons rescued went to shelters and some to relative’s homes.
Tartavoulle said the shelters	opened	were
Annunciation School, Hancock North Central Elementary, Vo-Tech, and Kids Carousel, on Highway 43, volunteered by owners.
Late Wednesday afternoon a mother and three children who fell from horses were rescued. Tartavoulle said.
The foursome were riding two horses off Cypress Drive in the Flatop Community. "They were on the horses in water over the horses’ mouth and the riders fell off and almost drowned,” Tartavoulle stated.
Longtime Hancock County Board of Supervisor A.A. (Dolph) Kellar reported in his 32 years of residence on High-
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way 43, that he had never seen as much water in the area as he did Tuesday morning.
Mississippi State Troopers and Department of Transportation workers blocked Highway 43 on Tuesday morning to repair a section of washout under the roadbed. Other areas of the highway were closed because of water overflowing.
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