Conditions in South Alabama

[artinla]

Just wanted to pass along to all of you what things are like right now in my area. I did not see an appropriate thread to put this in, so I started this one. Maybe we could pin a thread for people to post "First Hand" accounts from their area.

I live in Foley, Alabama which is about 12 miles inland. We are due north of Gulf Shores, which was devastated by Hurricane Frederic in 1979. I lived through that one and will be riding this one out here in my house. I am in a sheltered area in town with many homes all around me.

The wind is blowing out of the east at about 40mph right now. Because of the sheltered nature of my neighborhood, the wind is less at ground level. I can see the wind in the treetops though, and it is pretty strong. I don't remember the wind being this strong at this point during Frederic. To me, this storm appears to be stronger so far. Rain has been consistent all day, with some heavy showers. There is no lightning but there was a Tornado earlier today just south of us.

We went to the coast in Gulf Shores at noon, they were just about to close the bridge onto the island. We saw many TV crews and emergency personnel at the beach. I can only estimate, but the surf was at least 10-15 feet and the level of the water was nearly all the way up to the street. I think that by now the water has overflowed the seawall and is probably just entering the low lying shops. The waves are much higher than I expected considering the distance from the eye.

If I don't get a lot of flames for this post, I will give updates until I lose power.

I am interested in hearing from some others who are in the path of Ivan and what you are experiencing.

Art

[yzerfan]

Keep posting! I'm keeping a running thread called something like "Gulf Coast tv reports" since it's relatively uneventful (Thank god!) by me so far.

[Ixolib]

I sure do miss the good old Gulf Shores of the early and mid 70's. Such a neat place then to have turned into what it is now. Commercialism (sp) has really taken hold down there.....

But, thanks for the update. And the thread idea is a good one.

[Brent]

I'm in East Central Alabama. Nothing to write home about yet. A little light rain, and some breezy conditions. Worst conditions look to be tomorrow.

[TideFreak]

Mobile here. Gusts to around 40, lotsa rain for the last 3 hours, and the center is roughly 115 miles south of us now. Local meteorologists are saying we should be getting gusts over hurricane force within the hour, with conditions rapidly going downhill from this point on.

[AL Chili Pepper]

Right here in downtown on the waterfront (about 3 blocks from Stephanie). I'm at work, so we'll probably have power through the night ....don't know about the T1 though. Anyway, light rain with probably 40 MPH gusts. Also, 2 HUGE ships docked in the river.

[artinla]

Update:

Heard on the radio that the main public beach in Gulf Shores is now underwater. Sections of the beach road have already washed away.
The reporter said that the waves are at 20'.

Here in Foley, many people are already without power. Fortunately mine has flickered but stayed on. I took a trip around town before curfew at 6, and saw a huge oak tree already down across the highway, and several other trees down. The rain is getting heavier as time goes by.

Governor Bob Riley made it mandatory to evacuate from all areas south of I10, but that was only yesterday evening. It was too late for many to make evacuation plans. The worst part is that because we are in a "Mandatory Evacuation Area" there are no shelters or hospitals open. I feel sorry for those who cannot find shelter here. The evacuation area is too big (extends into high farmland well inland). I guess about 50% of the residents here evacuated, the rest stayed. I don't want to speculate wrongly, but I just have a bad feeling about the motives behind not opening shelters in the entire county. Funny that Pensacola is right on the coast and only 20 miles east, yet they had NO evacuations except at the beach.

Well, I will post some storm related info around midnight if I have power.

Art

[Brent]

First real rainband here. Just light rain, no wind even. I remember when Frances came ashore in the Big Bend, it was very breezy here and we were on the weak side of it.

I expected some gusty winds by now. Oh well, won't bother me one bit if it doesn't happen.

[Steve]

Not much to report in New Orleans. We've been just west of the rainsheild all day. We've gotten bands without the rain. The last hour or so we've had a few gusts up into the high 40's . That's about it. The eye will probably be at its closest in a few hours as it passes to the east. I'm hoping to see a 60-something. Good luck to all of you in AL, MS and WFL tonight.

Steve

[JQ Public]

Just saw on NBC 15 from mobile and they said power is now out in downtown mobile. 34,000 out in the western panhandle.

[TideFreak]

7:25 here. Starting to get some strong gusts here, guess around 50-60. Getting worse quickly. Lost the top half, (About 15 ft) of a pine on driveway side of my house, and the way it's starting to blow will probably lose more. Has been raining steadily for about the last 4 hrs. Ground is gettting extremely saturated. Won't be good for trees uprootng.
Starting to lose power around Mobile, and the whole Dauphin Island area is now without.

[AL Chili Pepper]

It's really picking up now.....some gusts probably to 70 MPH on the river. Power's out in downtown. We're on generator.

[mf_dolphin]

Stay safe everyone. The worst is hours away...

[Skywatch_NC]

This afternoon on FOX Shepherd Smith was saying a landfall in the 3 to 4 AM time frame.

Of course that can change...but that's just what I heard.

Eric

[Ixolib]

Just had our first power bumb in Biloxi at 7:45pm CDT. Came right back on.

[AL Chili Pepper]

Just had our first power bumb in Biloxi at 7:45pm CDT. Came right back on.

Looks like they came back on here too. Bet that won't happen many more times.

[TideFreak]

I live in mobile winds seem to be around 40 sustained with higher gusts, are we gonna see hurricane force even it makes a move a little east

[artinla]

Power went off about 6:30, we are on generator power now. There is a line down in the street behind our house that is sparking. Winds are around 55mph with gusts to around 70 I guess. Limbs down, but not a great deal of wind impacting our house. I am glad that we have structures shielding us, the wind would be pretty bad otherwise.

Hope everyone is safe, good luck through the night.

Art

[HurricaneQueen]

I've been listening to: http://www.wpmi.com/ all evening and it has terrific up to the minute coverage on every aspect of the storm even using Doppler Radar to zoom into possible tornado cells. Great reporting of power outages and flooding and that 4 radio stations have been knocked off the air.

Sorry, I used quick reply so I can use the URL function. You'll have to cut and paste to connect.

Lynn

[Jimbosc]

My brother lives in Daphne about mile south of I10 - they bolted this morning. Lots of big trees around their house and afraid they might take too much damage to ride out the storm - with no shelters in Baldwin County to use.

Jim