GULFPORT, Miss.–Floods along the Mississippi Gulf Coast this weekend had residents scrambling for higher ground in some places after heavy rainfall that happened quickly.
Though the flooding only happened in some areas in Harrison and Jackson counties, stories of rescues, like one where three people had to be rescued from quickly rising waters in their home, made the flooding seem like a widespread event.
For those who experienced the flood waters, the situation certainly seemed dire.
“I’ve actually seen some pictures posted on social media of cars two feet deep in water in Gulfport,” said Meteorologist Todd Adams, with News Mississippi on the Coast.
“Some of the rainfall totals include four and a half inches in Biloxi, five and a half inches in Gulfport, just over five inches in Pascagoula,” he said.
Adams said the main problem was a continuous flow of moisture coming in over the same places again and again, a process called “training”. It’s like a train, cars going over the same area of track again and again.
“We’ve had almost two days, on and off of rainfall and the ground is saturated.”
Adams said the rain that fell Saturday had no where to soak up, so the flooding started. Now, after a wet weekend, it looks like Monday may bring some drying out in areas that need it badly.