Owners of marine craft in the city’s public harbors and marinas this afternoon were asked to make arrangements to relocate their vessels to safer locations.
“Although evacuation is not mandatory at this time, it is highly recommended that vessels be relocated well in advance to safer locations in order to protect both the vessel and the marina/harbor,” Port Division Manager Larry Sablich said in a notice that was being delivered to the nearly 300 owners of vessels in Biloxi’s four public harbors and marinas.
Boat owners typically move their craft to safer anchorage up the Bay of Biloxi, which means the bridges at Popp’s Ferry in west Biloxi and Lorraine Road in east Gulfport may be opening more frequently for marine traffic. The I-110 highrise also has to open for larger craft. Bridges will not open to marine traffic when winds reach 35 mph.
In his email, Sablich said the city’s ports and harbors — the Biloxi Small Craft Harbor, the adjoining Commercial Dock, Point Cadet Marina and the Sherman Canaan Back Bay Dock — will shut down when a hurricane or tropical storm warning is issued, or 24 hours before expected landfall, which ever occurs first.
If a significant storm surge is expected, Sablich said, all vessels must be out of the city’s marinas and harbors, vehicle/pier access will be terminated, and electrical service and water to the piers will be shut down.
See the Biloxi Port Division online
