halfway destroyed not be rebuilt. Recovery efforts after Hurricane Elena continued to a small degree for years after its passage; for example, beach replenishment at Indian Rocks Beach in Pinellas County began in the summer of 1990. Central Gulf Coast Power companies from several states sent workers to help restore service to the hardest-hit areas of the Gulf Coast. Most of Alabama Power's affected customers had power within 24 hours of the storm, though restoration of service to Dauphin Island took significantly longer. Power was fully restored to Central Louisiana Electric customers by September 4. Alabama's two coastal counties were declared federal disaster areas on September 7. Special loan assistance was made available by the Small Business Administration and the Farmers Home Administration, the latter of which sought to help commercial growers who lost their crops to the storm. Mississippi Governor William Allain sent 500 members of the National Guard to partner with 200 law enforcement officers along Mississippi's coast in minimizing crime, and nighttime curfews were established in several cities. On September 4, President Reagan declared Mississippi's coastal counties a Major Disaster area. The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimated that as many as 3,000 homes in the state were uninhabitable, their occupants forced to find temporary living arrangements. The Small Business Administration approved special loans up to $500,000 for owners of damaged businesses. Mississippi Power Company's system was the hardest-hit, and restoration of service was slow; 50,000 of 80,000 customers were still without electricity by September 5. By September 5, the Salvation Army, Red Cross, and other organizations had served 100,000 meals to those displaced by the hurricane in Mississippi, and federal food stocks became available for the state to distribute to storm victims. Still, resources such as food and ice started to run short in the hardest-hit locations, and long lines formed at the first few stores and gas stations to reopen. With dwindling supplies, the Salvation Army had to procure food from other parts of the region to serve to victims. In the days after the hurricane, an increase in heart attack deaths in the Harrison County area was noted. See also List of Category 3 Atlantic hurricanes List of United States hurricanes List of Florida hurricanes (1975–1999) List of retired Atlantic hurricane names List of tropical cyclone-spawned tornadoes Hurricane Sally (2020) – A category 2 hurricane that also stalled in the Gulf of Mexico Notes References