No deaths or injuries and minimal structural damage reported on US mainland from storm that killed at least 22 in Central America

Hurricane Nate brought a burst of flooding and power outages to the US Gulf coast before weakening rapidly on Sunday, sparing the region the kind of catastrophic damage left by hurricanes that hit the southern US and Caribbean in recent weeks.

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Nate was the first hurricane to make landfall in Mississippi since Katrina in 2005. It quickly lost power, diminishing to a tropical depression as it pushed north into Alabama and towards Georgia with heavy rain. It was a category 1 hurricane when it came ashore outside Biloxi early on Sunday, its second landfall after initially hitting south-eastern Louisiana on Saturday evening.

The storm surge from the Mississippi Sound littered Biloxi’s main beachfront highway with debris and flooded a casino lobby and parking structure overnight. By dawn, however, receding floodwaters did not reveal any obvious signs of widespread damage in a city where Katrina had leveled thousands of beachfront homes and businesses.

No storm-related deaths or injuries were immediately reported.

More than 100,000 residents in Mississippi and Alabama were without power on Sunday morning, although some were starting to get electricity restored. About 6,800 customers lost power in Florida, Governor Rick Scott said.

Mississippi’s Gulf coast casinos got approval to reopen in mid-morning, after closing Saturday as the storm approached.

Sean Stewart was checking on his father’s sailboat at a Biloxi marina after daybreak. He found that another boat had sunk, its sail still fluttering in Nate’s diminishing winds. He was relieved to find his father’s craft intact. “I got lucky on this one,” he said.

Before Nate sped past Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula late on Friday and entered the Gulf of Mexico, it drenched Central America with rains that left at least 22 dead. But Nate did not approach the intensity of Harvey, Irma and Maria, powerful storms that left massive destruction during an exceptionally busy hurricane season.

“We are thankful because this looked like it was going to be a freight train barreling through the city,” said Vincent Creel, a spokesman for the city of Biloxi.

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) said the four hurricanes that have struck the US and its territories this year have “strained” resources, with roughly 85% of the agency’s forces deployed.

“We’re still working massive issues in Harvey, Irma as well as the issues in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and now this one,” the Fema administrator, Brock Long, told ABC’s This Week.

Fears that Nate would overwhelm the fragile pumping system in New Orleans proved unfounded. The storm passed to the east and Mayor Mitch Landrieu lifted a curfew on a city known for its all-night partying.

At landfall in Mississippi, the fast-moving storm had maximum sustained winds near 85mph, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Nate steadily weakened after its first landfall in a sparsely populated area of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana.

As of 11am ET the center of Nate was near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, with maximum sustained winds of 35mph. The NHC said the depression was moving to the north-north-east near 24mph. Nate was expected to bring 3in to 6in of rain to the deep south, eastern Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachians through Monday. The Ohio Valley and central Appalachians could also get heavy rain. A wind advisory was in effect until 7pm CT for the Tennessee Valley.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An abandoned boat takes on water near Biloxi, Mississippi. Photograph: Justin Vicory/AP

In Biloxi Willie Cook, 75, spent his morning chopping down a pecan tree that fell in his backyard. He said Nate was nothing like Katrina, which pushed 8ft of water into his house. “The wind was blowing, but it wasn’t too rough,” Cook said.

A spokesman for the Mississippi emergency management agency, Greg Flynn, said about 1,100 people spent the night in shelters. “Thankfully, right now we have no major damage reports,” he said.

The Hancock County emergency management agency director, Brian Adam, said Nate’s storm surge flooded low-lying roads, but he had not heard any reports of flooded homes. “We turned out fairly good,” he said as he prepared to survey neighborhoods. “Until we get out and actually get into some of the areas, we really won’t know.”

In Alabama, the storm flooded homes and cars on the coast and inundated at least one major road in downtown Mobile. At sunrise in Pensacola Beach, Florida, a small front-end loader scraped sand off a parking lot and returned it to the nearby beach. Sand also was blown on to the decks of beachside bars and restaurants.

Officials rescued five people from two sailboats in choppy waters before the storm. One 41ft sailboat lost its engine in Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, and two sailors were saved. Another boat hit rocks in the Mississippi Sound and three people had to be plucked from the water.

