7:41 p.m. ET, August 30, 2021
20 water rescues reported in 3 counties, Mississippi governor says
From CNN’s Keith Allen
Striking a cautiously optimistic tone, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves thanked residents for heeding warnings ahead of Hurricane Ida and asked for one more night of patience as the storm continues to move through the state.
Reeves expects the storm to make its way out of Mississippi by daybreak, and he urged residents who live north of Jackson to remain indoors with heavy rain and 35-40 mph winds still predicted for Monday night.
“I want to remind everyone that we are not completely out of the woods yet,” Reeves said.
“And so, while the winds have died down a bit from where they were when the storm entered our state, it is still a dangerous storm and we will still see significant amounts of rainfall over the next 12 hours,” he added.
There are still approximately 85,000 power outages throughout the state, down from 136,000 outages, and 19 shelters remain open, down from 28 earlier in the day, Reeves said.
Over the last 36 hours, approximately 20 water rescues were performed in Jackson, Harrison, and Hancock counties, but reports of damage so far have been light, the governor told reporters Monday.
Reeves also said that he authorized the release of federal assets earlier in the day on Monday, so that they may be deployed to harder-hit Louisiana.
“It was very clear and very evident that we could take care of ourselves, and when you're in a major hurricane of this magnitude, if you can take care of yourself at the local or the state level, it's imperative that you do the right thing and let the federal assets go to where they are most needed,” the governor said.
Jim Craig, senior deputy and director of the Mississippi Department of Health, also summarized the storm’s impact on the state’s vulnerable population.
Mississippi has four nursing homes that are running on generator power and two nursing homes that reported minor damage. Five hospital facilities are operating on a mixture of electric grid and generators, and six hospitals are reporting minor damage, Craig said.
Two assisted living facilities are without power Monday afternoon and three such facilities are currently operating on generators, Craig added.