The worst of the damage occurred along a stretch of coastline, centered on the Pascagoula area. Elena's winds damaged most of the schools in Jackson County, and more specifically, every school in Pascagoula was structurally compromised to some degree. Damages to schools in Ocean Springs totaled $3 million. In the same city, the overall conditions following the hurricane were described as worse than those in the prior hurricanes Frederic or Camille. Elena destroyed 20 houses and two supermarkets in Ocean Springs, and several buildings on every city block sustained severe roof damage due to fallen trees. Two shopping centers were destroyed in nearby Gautier, possibly by short-lived tornadoes. A fire captain in Gautier remarked immediately after the storm that he had not yet seen an unharmed building in the city. The community became essentially isolated from the outside world, and quickly began to run short of food, clean water, and gasoline supplies. Initial reports from Pascagoula also indicated that most, or all, of that city's buildings were damaged. Nearly every business in the city was damaged to the extent that none were able to open when the storm cleared. A post-storm assessment by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency revealed over 900 businesses in Jackson County sustained damage, contributing to a total of nearly 1,500 in the state's three coastal counties.