Weak Hurricane Heads Slowly for Land

A weak but watery Hurricane Danny drenched the Louisiana coast and crept toward Alabama on Friday, spoiling beach-goers’ weekend vacation plans.

With winds just barely more than the 74-mph hurricane level, Danny moved through the Gulf of Mexico and was expected to come ashore between Gulfport, Miss., and the Florida Panhandle early today, dumping 10 to 20 inches of rain along the way.

The first death attributed to the storm came Friday night in Fort Morgan, Ala., a beach community south of Mobile, when a deputy found a swamped sailboat on the coast with the body of an unidentified man lying in the rough surf.

While Danny, the second hurricane of the Atlantic season that began June 1, was barely strong enough to be classified a hurricane, it set off tornado warnings in the upper Gulf.

One tornado was reported to have touched down at a marina in Orange Beach, Ala., near the Florida border, causing some structural damage but no injuries.

The hurricane caused a 5-foot storm surge in Louisiana and snapped utility poles, submerged cars and destroyed trailer homes. But it was not the kind of damage that alarms people who are accustomed to seeing nature’s fury.

The main threat appeared to be flooding.

“We are staying,” said Vicki Bruce of Lexington, Tenn., who was vacationing with her family at Orange Beach. “I think there is more danger trying to get out with the traffic so bad. There is more danger getting hurt in a traffic accident than in the storm.”

*

With the skies darkening, many businesses along Alabama’s coast boarded up their windows. Cars streamed north through the rain as vacationers left motels and condominiums for home or drier ground. Gov. Forrest “Fob” James Jr. activated the National Guard and sent 30,000 sandbags to coastal areas as a precaution.

People in low-lying areas, trailer homes and recreational vehicles were advised to leave, but were not ordered to go.

“We opened six shelters,” said Mobile County Emergency Management Agency Director John Van Hook. “There’s hardly anyone in any of them.”

Danny appeared to be on a path that would spare Mississippi’s casinos along the coast.

“Looks like we lucked out on this one,” said Wally Ramage, who operates a shop offering fuel and bait in Gulfport, Miss. “We’ve had heavy rains and 3-foot tides, but the sky is brightening.”

Along Florida’s Panhandle, which also was under a hurricane warning, the area’s military bases secured planes in hangars or sent them to other bases. Some tourists were canceling reservations, but many who had already checked in were staying.

“As long as they don’t evacuate the beach, then we’ll be fine,” said Sam Waghalter, manager of the Hampton Inn at Pensacola Beach.

As Danny moved across Grand Isle, Louisiana’s only inhabited barrier island, it piled water 5 feet deep, swamping cars and trucks but sparing most houses, which are built on stilts.

The storm blew apart trailer homes in Venice, on the coast, and snapped power poles in Plaquemines Parish below New Orleans, which received only isolated squalls.