Mississippi officials are taking a look at ways to improveemergency traffic flow from Louisiana in cases like HurricanesKatrina and Gustav. But local officials said while things weren’tabsolutely problem-free, Lincoln County fared pretty well with theinflux of evacuating motorists during Gustav last year.

Contraflow is a process used during emergency times such as thehurricanes when traffic flow on Interstates 59 and 55 is restrictedto northbound traffic only so that both lanes head away from thecoming storm. It can only take place when agreed to by thegovernors of Louisiana and Mississippi during a Category 3, 4 or 5storm.

Some Mississippi officials contend the large influx of motoristsunfamiliar with the area caused an inconvenience to businesses andresidents.

While Poplarville and Pearl River County officials wereconcerned with the congestion and confusion caused in their area bythe contraflow, which ends just south of Poplarville, LincolnCounty fared better, local officials said. Interstate 55 contraflowends in Lincoln County just north of Exit 30 at Bogue Chitto.

Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing said for his officers, whowere all out directing traffic and regulating, the process was anecessary but tiring one.

“We had a whole bunch of officers tied up in traffic details, insome places we might need a little more help from the state levelnext time, but it went a lot better than Katrina,” he said. “Thefirst exit off after the contraflow was here and we had sometraffic choke points at Highway 84 and Bogue Chitto Road and thestate helped us out on them.

“I think we handled it best we could and a whole lot better thanKatrina, and we’re just improving on it as we go,” the sheriffcontinued.

Mississippi Highway Patrol Troop M Public Affairs Officer Sgt.Rusty Boyd said troopers from other parts of the state were broughtin to help local law enforcement.

“It’s a big inconvenience, we know that, and it’s never going tobe completely smooth sailing,” he said. “We had everybody out plussome units from up north, and now after it’s all over, we can sayit came off as best it could.”

Boyd said the area within Troop M’s boundaries only had slighthitches, and those were not about the actual traffic on the roads.As exits were blocked to keep the traffic flowing, some businessowners complained that it was keeping them from making money on thetravelers.

“In McComb there was some complaint from them as to how it washandled, but we did it to continue to keep traffic flowing,” Boydsaid. “We monitored it and whenever we saw progress we would openthe exits back up, not because anybody called or anything, butbecause that’s what we chose to do. We didn’t think aboutMcDonald’s or Exxon or Shell or whatever, we just knew we had aproblem on the interstate.”

Lincoln County Emergency Management and Civil Defense DirectorClifford Galey said Hurricane Gustav’s contraflow process brought amuch smoother transition than during Hurricane Katrina.

“Gustav was a lot better, and I think part of that was becauseit wasn’t of the same magnitude as Hurricane Katrina,” he said.”Also the fact that we had done it before and we already had theexperience.”

But, Galey said, the issue becomes more about what to do withthe people when they get into town.

While many of them do clog local gas stations then keep going,many more are looking for shelter once they’re in town. Even that,though, was executed well, Galey said.

“Of course they’re going to congregate at the 84 Chevron or theWal-Mart parking lot, and we have to have someone there to explainto them where the shelters are,” he said. “Sometimes it’s justbecause they don’t listen to the proper channels to tell them whatto do, but I feel like the city and county law enforcement had abetter understanding of where the evacuees were going to go andwhat needed to be done.”

Rushing added that if officials could find a way to let evacueesknow ahead of time what is available at the various exits, it couldhelp the process along as well.

“Bogue Chitto just has a couple of businesses down there, butpeople who aren’t from here might not know that,” he said. “Ifthere was some way to let them know what exits had what kinds ofbusinesses, that would probably help a lot, but I don’t know whatthat would take.”

But, Boyd pointed out, for every bit of the inconvenience of thepeople of Lincoln County, it’s a thousand times worse for those whoare being forced to leave their homes.

“Just think, you’re fixing to lose your home, when you go backthere might not be anything to go back home to,” he said. “Ofcourse we know it’s a big inconvenience for a lot of people here,but they have to be patient and realize it’s more inconvenient forthe people that have to leave down there than it is for peoplesitting up here worrying about the traffic.”