Hurricane Stays Put, Flooding Homes

Hurricane Danny parked over Mobile Bay on Saturday, aiming 80-mph winds and torrential rains at Alabama’s resort coast, obliterating electrical power and flooding low-lying seashore homes.

After edging across the mouth of the bay shortly after midnight, the hurricane’s movement was virtually nonexistent for much of the day, battering the same area without relief.

By about 5:30 p.m. EDT, Danny was losing some of its circular shape and the winds had decreased, making it difficult for meteorologists to determine the precise location of the storm’s eye.

“We anticipate some weakening, but we’re still getting rain and wind,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Randy McKee in Mobile.

The threat of tornadoes sent thousands to emergency shelters or the safety of inland motels. At least one death was blamed on the storm. About 20,000 homes and businesses lost power.

Despite the damage, with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, Danny remained a relatively smallish hurricane, a far cry from Hurricane Frederic, which ravaged this area in 1979.

“This is nothing compared to Frederic,” said Pleasant Church, 65, who has lived in the area for nearly three decades. “This is a little blip.”

Nevertheless, rainfall was extreme. In the worst-hit areas of Mobile County and Dauphin Island, nearly 30 inches had fallen since early Friday.

Ground floors in some homes took on water and some roads were flooded, but major routes remained passable. There were few travelers, yet some worked hard to enjoy their vacations despite the severe weather.

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At the scenic Grand Hotel in nearby Point Clear, restaurant guests ate a continental breakfast as the center of the storm moved overhead Saturday morning, watching bayside pine trees whipped by high winds.

With the help of generators, Grand Hotel manager David Monroe vowed to stage a Saturday afternoon wedding in the ballroom as planned, “Come hell or high water.”

A lack of prevailing winds kept Danny churning virtually in place, McKee said.

“There’s just nothing to push it or pull it, so it’s just meandering over the bay,” he said.

About 1,600 people sought refuge Saturday in 12 shelters in Baldwin and Mobile counties, and hundreds more went inland to ride out the storm.

The lone death blamed on the advancing storm was an unidentified man whose body was found Friday near a swamped sailboat off Fort Morgan.

Most of the property damage was limited to torn roofs and falling tree limbs, but a four-story Gulf Shores condominium project under construction crashed in the strong winds.