Pearl River County, Mississippi · Poplarville
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With 11% of homes built before 1960 and about 1 hard-freeze night a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
April brings the most downpours to Pearl River County, part of 19.8 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
Sewage backups in Pearl River County spike on heavy-rain days, about 19.8 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Pearl River County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 7.06 inches.
5% of occupied homes in Pearl River County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Mississippi county median of 15.1%.
With 144 muggy nights a year, mold in Pearl River County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
With 25,442 homes and around 57,458 residents, Pearl River County is 811 square miles of southern Mississippi. The county seat is Poplarville, and Picayune, Nicholson and Hide-A-Way Lake round out the largest towns. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1990.
48/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Pearl River County ranks 43 of 82 Mississippi counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Pearl River County ranks highest compared with other Mississippi counties.
Pearl River County is milder than most of Mississippi, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. It averaged 17 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 1 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 82 Mississippi counties that's 75th.
With only about 17 freezing nights a year, many homes here aren't built for cold, so a single arctic outbreak can burst pipes across the county. The record low in this data was about 13°F, on January 17, 2018.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Mississippi. The county gets about 69.7 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 19.8 days of an inch or more (3rd of 82). Those downpours cluster in January, April and May, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 7.06 inches on August 30, 2021. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 8.65 inches (through August 31, 2021).
Housing
Roughly 35% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Pearl River among the newer housing stocks of Mississippi's 82 counties.
Growth since 2000 added 32% of today's homes. In houses that new, the weak points are washing machine hoses, ice maker lines, water heaters and sump pumps rather than the pipes in the walls.
33% date from 1980 to 1999, the window when polybutylene, a gray flexible plastic supply pipe, was used in some homes. It's prone to leaks at the fittings, so it's worth checking for in a house from those years.
Manufactured and mobile homes make up 18% of the housing here. Water lines in the underbelly depend on intact skirting and working heat tape, and they're usually the first to freeze in a cold snap.
Beyond water
About 144 nights a year in Pearl River County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (4th of 82 counties). June is the wettest month. The EPA recommends keeping indoor humidity below 60%, ideally 30 to 50%. Basements can pass 60% on their own in summer, so a dehumidifier matters even without a leak, and anything wet should be dried within 24 to 48 hours.
Mold remediation: what to expectHeating fuel matters for fire risk. In Pearl River County it's 6% utility gas, 88% electric, 4% propane and 1% wood. Fires here are likelier to start in the kitchen or the wiring than in the furnace. After any fire, keep the HVAC off until ducts are checked, or soot will travel through the house.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Pearl River County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Forrest, Lamar and Marion get more pipe-freeze nights than Pearl River. Marion County has the oldest housing nearby, with 49% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Pearl River | Mississippi median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 11% | 15% | 63 of 82 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 35% | 45% | 66 of 82 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 32% | 23% | 16 of 82 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 18% | 20% | 50 of 82 |
| Vacant homes | 14% | 17% | 61 of 82 |
| Wood or propane heat | 5.4% | 15% | 75 of 82 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 1/yr | 3/yr | 75 of 82 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 20/yr | 16/yr | 3 of 82 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 17/yr | 32/yr | 79 of 82 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 144/yr | 125/yr | 4 of 82 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Mississippi county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Pearl River County: freezing from midwinter, heavy rain in January, April and May.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year estimates (2020-2024); weather from NOAA nClimGrid-Daily county averages (EpiNOAA), 2015–2024, averaged across the county; county boundaries from Census TIGER. Reviewed 2026-10-21. Methodology