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Hancock County's 1980 population of 24,537 makes it the least populous of Mississippi's three coastal counties. Much of the population is concentrated near the coastal area from Bay St. Louis to Bayou Caddy. Considerable residential development has taken place in the County in recent years, particularly since the NASA Mississippi Test Facility was constructed. The coast westward from Bayou Caddy is undeveloped.
In past years, development in Hancock County has not kept pace with development in the two other Mississippi coastal counties. The area from Highway 90 to Bayou Caddy is appreciated to continue to develop as a residential area, while future development of the marshy shoreline westward of Bayou Caddy is unlikely.
Existing Shore Protection Works
The principal shore protection structure in Hancock County is the 11.5-mile seawall constructed by local interests between the Jourdan River and Bayou Caddy. The existing seawall consists of a variety of wall types and configurations. Between 1915 and 1920, the City of Bay St. Louis, together with St. Stanislaus College, built a series of seawalls 5,500 feet in length to protect the city's main business district. Another series of step-type seawalls was constructed by the County between 1926 and 1928. The total cost of original construction of these seawalls was approximately $850,000. The adjoining roadway (Beach Boulevard) was initially constructed as a 24-foot double lane concrete structure, costing approximately $350,000.
The seawall sections constructed by the City of Bay St. Louis include three sections of step-type walls and five varieties of upright concrete walls. The seawalls constructed by the County are reinforced concrete step-type slabs supported at the heel by reinforced concrete piling and at the toe by a curtain wall of interlocking concrete piles. Top elevations of both series of seawalls vary according to backshore elevations, and range from 2.78 feet above Mean Sea Level at Bayou Caddy to 11.0 feet at Bay St. Louis.
In 1929, local interests attempted to maintain a beach seaward of the seawall through construction of a series of low, short concrete groins. In 1941, small amounts of dredged fill were placed against the wall in another effort to establish a protective beach. Both of these efforts proved ineffective.