Published: September 03, 2008 11:33 am            

Gustav bypasses county

NEWTON — Hurricane Gustav may not have affected Newton County by damage like Hurricane Katrina but this time many residents seemed to have been more prepared than they were nearly three years ago when Katrina left a large amount of damage in the area.

Local grocery stores were filled with people over the weekend stocking up on water, canned goods and staples just in case the storm left the county without power.

“There has definately been a lot more shoppers at the store preparing just in case this proves to be like Katrina,” Garvin’s Piggly Wiggly manager Mike Butler said on Friday as customers were urgently shopping the aisles. “We have had to keep restocking the shelves continously as more and more shoppers were coming into the store buying the necessary items they needed just to be prepared for the worse.”

At the local Wal-Mart store shelves were empty by Sunday afternoon as shoppers got last-minute items before settling in to see if Hurricane Gustav would be affecting Newton County.

“It was no comparison to Hurricane Katrina by any means,” Wal-Mart manager Clint Sampson said. “The customers were willing to help out, the patience levels of the customers and especially the ones from Louisiana was really good.”

Sampson said they seemed to be much better prepared and not panicking like Katrina.

“We are still recovering and trying to get everything back on counters for our community,” Sampson said. “We have pretty much exhausted our resources on canned items.”

Sampson said he heard many comments from people traveling through on how nice everyone in the community has been to them.

By Monday Newton County residents were able to breathe a sigh of relief as Hurricane Gustav continued on a northwest track making landfall late Monday morning around Morgan City, La., coming inland as a category 2 hurricane.

Most of the severe weather was pulled away from eastern Mississippi but a few strong rain bands that came through Newton county had the potential to produce tornadoes as warnings were issued throughout the evening hours according to Newton Emergency Management Coordinator Gary Galloway.

“We were very fortunate this time not to get the kind of weather we received with Katrina,” Galloway said on Monday afternoon as the last of the bad weather moved out of Newton County. “I was glad to see that people have taken it a lot more serious this time and were better prepared since Katrina came through our area three years ago.”

On Tuesday Galloway said there could be still be a chance the county could go under tornado watches and warnings while the band is lingering.

“When this band we are experiencing from Hurricane Gustav moves a little bit further west we should be ok,” Galloway said. “We will be under a tornado watch until 4 p.m. We are now watching Ike which is a tropical storm in the Atlantic that could be a threat to us, which could be in the gulf by Thursday, Sept. 11.

        

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