CHEMICAL PLUME CREATED WIDESPREAD HAZARD

GULFPORT - South Mississippi's busiest commercial corridor was covered by a
toxic cloud early Sunday morning, prompting immediate business closing and
evacuations over a 1-mile area.

Though arriving before 2 a.m., a time when most people were home asleep,
the cloud triggered a wave of emergency precautions, rousing travelers from
their beds and stalling highway and airport traffic for hours.

Emergency workers knocked on motel room doors, escorted night-owl shoppers
from the Wal-Mart Super Center and stood watch over busy roadways.

On the busiest travel day of the week, flights at the Gulfport-Biloxi
International Airport were delayed until nearly 10 a.m.

As many as 900 households in North Gulfport and Turkey Creek communities
awoke to a recorded telephone call message from the Harrison County Civil
Defense informing them of the emergency, the potential for a wider
evacuation and instructions to stay indoors and turn off ventilation
systems. The stay-indoors advisory covered about a 6-square-mile area.

In addition, eight hotels along U.S. 49 with more than 950 rooms combined
were evacuated.

The evacuations, which began shortly after 2:20 a.m., occurred without any
major problems. Authorities said the time of the emergency helped prevent
complications.

At Wal-Mart, for example, only 75 employees and shoppers were in the store
when management learned of the evacuation order.

"Saturday afternoon, it would have been tough," said Faron Cabler, manager
of the Wal-Mart Super Center. "We would have had thousands here."

Authorities temporarily closed down Interstate 10 until they could
determine wind patterns. After they learned winds were moving in a
southwesterly direction, they shut down several miles of U.S. 49 in North
Gulfport for six hours.

The American Red Cross's Fernwood chapter set up an emergency shelter at
the Harrison Central Elementary School for evacuees, but most people opted
to wait out the emergency from a Waffle House on Landon Road, the point
where U.S. 49 was closed.

About 12 people sought refuge at the school.

"People from the hotels on Highway 49 started coming before the coffee pot
was on," said Margie McCLuskey, a Red Cross volunteer. "The school set up a
television so we could get information."

The last evacuee left around 8:30 a.m. when U.S. 49 was reopened to traffic.

At the Waffle House, people either ate extended breakfasts, slept in their
cars or milled about outside. Pamela Williams and Donne Ryals wound up
stranded at the restaurant after they dropped a friend off for work. The
crisis cut into Williams' paycheck, who is a restaurant employee.

"I'm going to have to lose hours because I haven't had any sleep today,"
said Williams. "I'll have to go in later."

Billy Palmisano, a 23-year-old newspaper carrier for The Sun Herald, said
he noticed what appeared to be smoke rolling across the ground around 1:45
a.m. as he turned off Three Rivers Road onto Seaway Road.

"I called police, but they seemed to think it was a business burning
poles," he said.

Palmisano turned around to leave the area and flagged down a police officer
who was taking a suspect to the jail.

"He didn't know anything about it either," Palmisano said.

When authorities began to realize a hazardous situation was under way, he
received a telephone call from family members, who were bundling newspapers
at Wal-Mart and had been told to evacuate.

The newspaper carrier, who was accompanied by his brother-in-law, said the
strong odor burned their noses, caused roughness in their throats and made
their eyes water. The men still had headaches Sunday afternoon, but they
did not seek medical help.

Once the evacuation was over, Gulfport Police sent officers knocking on
doors to make sure residents were OK. Officer Pat Young walked into the
yard of the Rev. Calvin Jackson, who was standing outside talking to son,
Ronald, around 9 a.m.

"How are y'all feeling? Y'all OK?" Young asked.

"I got a whiff of it," answered Ronald Jackson, who indicated he was fine.

After receiving the recorded message, he left his home to drive up Rippy
Road to his father's house to check on his parents.

"I smelled it first," he said. "The cloud came just behind a police patrol
car. It was a big plume. You could see a gas like a giant, big fog through
the woods."

Reggie Beehner and Robin Fitzgerald contributed to this report.