Warren County officials keep eye on Harvey

Published 10:53 pm Friday, August 25, 2017

Area emergency management officials are watching the latest advisories as they wait to learn if Mississippi will be affected by Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm that was expected to hit the Texas Gulf Coast near Corpus Christi either sometime Friday night or early Saturday.

At 5:30 p.m. Friday, the storm was moving toward the Texas Coast with 130 mph winds. Forecasters were predicting rainfall accumulations of from 15 to 30 inches across Texas coastal areas and into southwest and central Louisiana.

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But the storm’s potential effect on west central Mississippi is still unknown, and the area may not be affected until later in the week.

“It may not get here until the end of next week, and it will be a rain event,” Warren County Emergency Management director John Elfer said. “Probably between 2 to 5 inches if we get it. We won’t have any winds to deal with. There is a slight chance that we could have tornadoes, but that could change by the weekend.”

He said a weather briefing is set for 10 a.m. Monday.

Thomas Winesett, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Jackson, said the present forecast calls for Harvey to stall over southeast Texas after making landfall “and then what happens after that is kind of uncertain if it moves up this way.”

“If it does move toward the northeast, does it move over our area? Or move further west? There’s still a decent amount of uncertainty, so it’s hard to say for sure. But we can’t take any scenario off the table at this point. There could be flooding and heavy rain, or it could miss us to the west.”

Winesett said meteorologists should have a better idea of Harvey’s direction by Monday, possibly over the weekend.

About John Surratt

John Surratt is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a degree in general studies. He has worked as an editor, reporter and photographer for newspapers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post staff since 2011 and covers city government. He and his wife attend St. Paul Catholic Church and he is a member of the Port City Kiwanis Club.

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