Officials say a man drowned in Biloxi, Mississippi, after getting trapped in rising ocean water pushed ashore by Zeta.
Harrison County Coroner Brian Switzer says 58-year-old Leslie Richardson was at an old marina with another man Wednesday evening when the Gulf began to rise.
Switzer says Richardson called 911 and told a dispatcher the car was beginning to float so he and the other man were going to try to wade or swim to safety. The two made it as far as a tree and hung for safety as the wind and water raged. A military-style rescue truck wasn?t able to get through the floodwaters and Switzer says Richardson?s strength finally ?just gave out.?
A person on a balcony at a nearby hotel spotted Richardson?s body floating in the flooded beachfront highway about two hours later and authorities were able to recover it once the weather calmed a little. Richardson?s acquaintance wasn?t badly injured.
It?s the third death that?s being blamed on Zeta as the storm races across the South after coming ashore in Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane.