BILOXI, Miss. — As Hurricane Nate cut a path through the central Gulf Coast overnight with roaring winds and a rush of storm-surge flooding, a limb snapped from a tree and landed on the windshield of Terry Gentry’s convertible, cracking the glass and bending the hood.

His reaction? Intense relief.

“I feel blessed. My dog’s still good,” Mr. Gentry said on Sunday. “All my family is good.”

With the devastating wounds left by three monster hurricanes in six weeks still raw from Texas to Florida to Puerto Rico, the impact of an ordinary Category 1 storm like Nate felt gentle by comparison.

As it sped northward, the storm brushed over the mouth of the Mississippi River in southern Louisiana, skipped to the east of New Orleans and drove ashore again near Biloxi, the first hurricane to make landfall in Mississippi since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It ripped trees from the ground, flooded low-lying areas, and sprayed the beaches with debris and the roads with sand and tree limbs. Part of Highway 90, the main road along the beachfront, was still closed on Sunday afternoon, and tens of thousands of customers in Mississippi and Alabama were without power.

Officials in Mississippi and Alabama said they were still assessing the full scope of the damage on Sunday. But according to preliminary reports, the storm mainly left an inconvenient mess, with widespread debris but only small pockets of more serious problems.

“We are very fortunate this morning,” said Gov. Phil Bryant of Mississippi, a Republican, though he was quick to warn against minimizing the harm caused by the storm’s 10-foot surge, strong winds and heavy rains. “Some damage has been done, particularly into some of the individual homes that are on the bay,” Mr. Bryant said.

The storm ground a large stretch of the Gulf Coast to a halt, and led President Trump to approve emergency declarations for the states of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, though Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana, a Democrat, said his state had been spared major damage.

“Hurricane Nate moved at an unprecedented speed towards the Gulf Coast,” Mr. Edwards said in a statement. “Because it moved so quickly, the damage was minimal in Louisiana.”

Col. Michael Clancy, commander of the New Orleans district of the Army Corps of Engineers, said the city, whose flawed hurricane defenses were overwhelmed by Katrina, had dodged a bullet this time. “God was on our side,” Colonel Clancy said.

For many in New Orleans, the hurricane barely registered as a blip on the radar. “A Category 1 is just like a little storm for us here,” said Brandon Garrett, 24, a construction worker. “In a way, I was disappointed that we got nothing at all. I barely got any days off.”