My mother just spoke with her neighbor across the street on Popps Ferry Rd. in north Biloxi. The electricity came back on at their house today. That can obviously make a huge difference, as many people can now boil water to sanitize it and they can much more quickly spread the news that they are safe (assuming DSL and cable internet providers are functioning).
My mother is planning to go back to her house tomorrow to do some more clean up and to check to see if her car will start. If the power is also on at her house and at least one of the vehicles starts, I suspect she will likely stay. I was planning to check the electricity status by calling her house and waiting to see if the answering machine picked up, but she told me that she had turned off all the circuit breakers before she evacuated.
Thank you very much to the men and women at utility companies who are working so hard out in the field to restore power to the neighborhoods!