Barry Stalls, May Hit East of La.

Tropical Storm Barry stalled in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday and looked likely to bypass Louisiana and hit Alabama or the Florida Panhandle when it began moving.

“Our official track does bring it inland somewhere between Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola, Fla. We are seeing a rightward adjustment to the track,” National Hurricane Center meteorologist Hugh Cobb said.

The news was a relief to Mayor David Camardelle of Grand Isle, Louisiana’s only inhabited barrier island. He didn’t have to order the island’s 1,455 residents to leave.

“We’re just going to watch it hour to hour through the night and see what’s going to happen next,” said Camardelle, who had asked tourists to leave at noon Saturday.

Southeast Louisiana is likely to get high tides, showers and thunderstorms, but should escape the worst of it, forecasters said.

Some people enjoyed the beach Saturday or went fishing, but others made preparations, just in case.

“People have been getting sandbags since [Friday], when we started putting them out,” said Mike Deroche, head of emergency preparedness in Terrebonne Parish, 60 miles southwest of New Orleans.

Rangers at Grand Isle State Park put trash barrels and signs inside, moved picnic tables back, warned people to keep children out of the water and told campers that the campground would be closing.

Rough surf kicked up by the storm killed about 100 sea turtle hatchlings along the Alabama coast Thursday. “We were able to rescue at least 150 hatchlings and release them into the water,” said Patrick Harper, a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Officials of St. Charles Parish, southwest of New Orleans, had declared an emergency but brightened Saturday at a forecast indicating that the storm might steer closer to Gulfport, Miss.

“That gives us a little bit of hope. But the forecast has changed so much already, and it could change again,” said Jason Tastet, of the parish department of emergency preparedness.