In the past few months, many parts of the United States of America have been badly hit by one hurricane after another. One of such areas is the Mississippi State where Hurricane Nate devastated many parts of the state destroying property worth billions of dollars. Of particular is the Mississippi coastal casino sector that was profoundly devastated. When the Hurricane Nate came, it is as if the target was the Mississippi casino industry, which seemingly suffered a great deal.
However, today, Mississippi casinos are beginning to reopen to catch up with the rest of the other parts of the state that did not get the ‘anger’ of Hurricane Nate. It should be remembered that at first, it was Hurricane Harvey that hard hit a big area in the State of Texas, then came Hurricane Irma, which categorized at 5 that hit Florida and many parts of the Caribbean and other adjacent states to Florida.
The most recent one hurricane was Tropical Storm Nate, which according to relevant authorities, was equivalent to a category two hurricane. Hurricane Nate devoured many parts of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi majorly the coastal region where the Mississippi coastal casino industry suffered the most.
Mississippi has been without a major attack from a hurricane since the last one landed on the state more than twelve years ago in 2005. That time, Hurricane Katrina caused havoc. And while twelve years is a long time for many things to go on, the recent entrance of Hurricane Nate forced many gaming operators of the Mississippi casino industry at the coast to suffer significant loses because they closed down their businesses for days.
As Nate approached from the southern part of the city, casino operators were quickly advised to shut down their business to allow any evacuation operations to take place if any.
Thankfully, all Mississippi coastal casino operators headed the life-saving warning, and by 5 pm, all casinos in the coastal region had shut down. According to a local journal, the Sun Herald, although some casinos in the area had witnessed floods right inside their gaming space including the pool area and parking garages, the previous evening, the same casinos were more than ready to reopen for business by 11.30am the following day.
Allen Godfrey, the Executive Director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, said that there are chances that all casinos may be ready for business only 20 or so hours after Hurricane Nate hit Mississippi Coastal Casinos.
Godfrey said that there were no significant damages that were reported; only minor damage was reported here and there. Scott King, the Marketing and Resort Operations Vice President at The Golden Nugget did confirm that indeed a lot of water did enter the facility’s elevator lobby but did not make it past there. The gaming floor remained safe and free from any water.
According to King, the level of water that entered the elevator lobby was only about four feet from the ground and that the casino floor is 27 feet above the ground! He also confirmed that during the storm, there were 300 people in the hotel. Some in the crowd were worried for they have never seen rain in their lives.
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Brian Jeacoma 
October 18, 2017 
