NEW ORLEANS – Hurricane “Nate” came ashore along Mississippi’s coast outside Biloxi early yesterday, the first hurricane to make landfall in the state since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The storm had maximum sustained winds early yesterday near 140 kilometers per hour with weakening expected as it moves inland, the US National Hurricane Center said. As of 2 a.m. EDT, Nate was centered about 10 kilometers north of Biloxi and moving north near at 31 kph.
At one point, Nate’s eye move over Keesler Air Force Base, where the National Hurricane Center’s Hurricane Hunter planes are kept, the center said.
It was Nate’s second landfall. Saturday night, the storm came ashore along a sparsely populated area in southeast Louisiana.
Nate brought stinging rain to the Gulf Coast and its powerful winds pushed water onto roads. No deaths or injuries were immediately reported.
Nate’s powerful winds pushed water onto roads and its winds knocked out power to homes and business. But Nate didn’t have the intensity other storms – “Harvey,” “Irma,” and “Jose” – had during this busy hurricane season, and people didn’t seem as threatened by it.
“We left for Katrina, but we’re going to ride this one out,” Ed Nodhturft said from his Ocean Springs home.
He was hosting an impromptu family reunion after several relatives who were staying at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi were forced to leave the hotel and seek shelter at his home.
During Katrina, Nodhturft’s home took on 1.5 meters of water from a coastal bayou. He’s in a new house, and a little worried about flooding in the low-lying area where he lives.
Hurricane Katrina made its final landfall on the Mississippi coast on Aug. 29, 2005, leveling many cities and buckling bridges. Casino barges were pushed into homes.
John Adams is a Massachusetts native who now lives on Belle Fontaine Beach, a narrow strip of land between the Mississippi Sound and a coastal marsh. Every house on the spit was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
“This is my first hurricane,” Adams said hours before the storm made landfall. “So far, it’s kind of a fizzle.” (AP)
