GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) -- An emergency official has confirmed that there have been at least 50 hurricane-related deaths in Mississippi's Harrison County.

Katrina blamed for at least 55 deaths
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Announcing itself with shrieking, 145-mph winds, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast just outside New Orleans today (Monday), submerging entire neighborhoods up to their roofs, swamping Mississippi's beachfront casinos and killing at least 55 people.
Jim Pollard, spokesman for the Harrison County emergency operations center, says 50 people were killed by Katrina in his county, with the bulk of the deaths at an apartment complex in Biloxi. Three other people were killed by falling trees in Mississippi and two died in a traffic accident in Alabama.
An untold number of other people were feared dead in flooded neighborhoods in Louisiana and Mississippi, many of which could not be reached by rescuers because of high water.