“Close to the Louisiana border, in Pearlington, police officers and members of the Mississippi National Guard gathered on a dry isthmus of road around 4 p.m. near several flooded neighborhoods where at least a half-dozen residents had been stranded.
Some had stayed to ride out the storm. Others like Gerald Watkins and his family came back on Monday morning because they thought the worst of the storm had passed. Mr. Watkins managed to flee, joining the cluster of police officers and soldiers, after seeing ankle-deep water in the home recently rebuilt after being destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
“I just finished the downstairs on Friday,” Mr. Watkins said. He shook his head, standing in the rain, with his white T-shirt fully drenched. “On Friday.”