Hurricanes in the daphne/spanish fort area???? (Mobile, Fairhope: houses, schools)

[DubbleT]

I went through Frederic. We saw a small commuter plane that was blown away from the airport lying out in the middle of Airport Blvd upside down, it was wild.

If you want to flee a hurricane make hotel reservations ASAP, otherwise you might find yourself going a long way without finding an available room. Because so many people were fleeing Hurricane Katrina we had tons of them showing up as far away as Memphis looking for a place to stay.

How far inland you go depends some on how big the storm is and your tolerance for gusting wind and rain.
Hurricane Frederic went inland for 160 miles before turning into a tropical storm that traveled all the way to southwest PA before being downgraded again.
Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm before hitting the New York area and you see how much damage a tropical storm can still do.

After Hurricane Frederic my dad always made sure to go inland at least five hours, usually over to Atlanta.
I'm not sure it was so much the storm itself he was fleeing, because the only damage we sustained was a few broken loblolly pines and torn off roof shingles. I think what he wanted to get away from was the inconveniences of the aftermath. No power, no running water, a twenty minute trip taking an hour because of trees blocking roadways, price gouging for basics like food and water, all those fun things.

[Jkgourmet]

Why is this thread making me reconsider Tennessee as a home base for our retirement. . .

[breer23]

Originally Posted by Jkgourmet

We don't have hurricanes in Phoenix, so please excuse my stupid question - but I really AM asking this seriously.

Where does one go when warned about a hurricane? I assume you bring your pets and drive to a pet friendly motel? How far inland do you have to go?

Depends on how 'scary' the storm is....

- For instance, when Ivan came, I drove from Mobile as far north as Memphis, and hotels were full up all along I-55, pet-friendly or otherwise. That's a 6 hour drive.
- When Cindy (or Dennis) came, we scattered west and figured if we couldn't find a pet-friendly hotel, I have family in eastern TX to stay with. We got lucky and found a Motel 6 in Baton Rouge that we stayed at. Never even rained there. Only a 3 hour drive.
- For Katrina, we hunkered down at my office bldg. (USA campus, which was built as a bomb shelter), pets and all. Drive time - 12 minutes.

After Katrina, more folks are heeding evacuation orders so finding lodging outside of the affected area is becoming tougher (so I hear - we left L.A. in '08).

Red Cross-based and private (typically at a church facility) shelters are also put together in preparation of a hurricane. During Katrina, there were several scattered between Mobile and Pensacola, especially for folks who fled from the Gulfport-Biloxi area, along with plenty of folks from New Orleans, and for folks from hospice-nursing home facilities.

[BstYet2Be]

Originally Posted by Jkgourmet

Why is this thread making me reconsider Tennessee as a home base for our retirement. . .

You wouldn't say that if you'd experienced any of its tornadoes in the spring. Was there in '74... during the infamous 1974 Super Tornado Outbreak that wiped out the entire south side of the city we lived in (SE TN) - no warnings issued at that time. The second one that came through that same day took care of the northeastern part of the city, but at least we did get a warning on that one as they evacuated us all to the courthouse basement in the center of town. Nope, not going back to TN! Tennessee, North Alabama and Mississippi are tornado-prone in the spring, as is Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and North Texas (Dallas). I'm sure there are others that people could chime in with.

Every place has its own natural weather occurrences... pick your poison! While hurricane season officially goes from June-October annually for all of the eastern Atlantic and southern Gulf coasts states, in South Alabama it's really only two months in that period that you need to pay attention to - August and September (mainly September) - where only the possibility exists for a hurricane. As it is right now, it's been six years (since '05 Katrina) that any major occurrence has happened, knock on wood! And, even when there is a hurricane, you're given enough notice ahead of time to prepare for it and pack up and leave if that's your choice - not so with a tornado.

See NCDC Storm Events for all historical storm events in Alabama's Baldwin or Mobile Counties. You can pull up each individual storm event by county or all the county's storm events at once. Then do the same for any other state/county storm events for comparison.

[humacaena]

Hurricane predictions have gotten to be very accurate...of when and where. The how much is still in question( I'm referring to rain and damage). People in New England are still puzzled of how Irene was so devastating...who knew? Thousands still without power...and Katia might hit New England or Canada again...go figure.

Nashville TN was hit by horrible floods less than 2 years ago. More than 29 dead and many homes and hotels had to be re built...again, a rain event...not a hurricane.

There is no perfect place, but at least with hurricanes you have days to prepare...tornadoes, not so. As I've said before, we lived on Ono Island(Orange Beach, AL) and stayed there for Katrina...no problem. During Ivan, we lost an 18" piece of soffit...and Ivan was a very destructive hurricane in the Alabama beach areas. We left the area, went to Atlanta...won't do that again, as many times the storms seem to follow...LOL!

[DubbleT]

Originally Posted by Jkgourmet

Why is this thread making me reconsider Tennessee as a home base for our retirement. . .

Originally Posted by BstYet2Be

You wouldn't say that if you'd experienced any of its tornadoes in the spring. . .

True that much of TN is tornado prone, especially the further west you go. Northeast TN is not immune to them but is much less likely to see them than the other areas of the state.Tennessee Tornadoes (This year was something of an exception, but isn't that the case with the weather just about everywhere this year! Floods, droughts,blizzards, earthquakes on the east coast, crazy stuff.)

Also part of what makes hurricanes so devastating is the tornadoes that are spawned within them. During Frederic a tornado took out one store in the middle of a strip of stores near our house, leaving the mdse standing on shelves on both side walls and everything else in the store just gone!

It's also true that every place has it's disasters to contend with and at least with a hurricane you get the opportunity to flee and take some of your things with you.

And to help put it into perspective my dad lived inland 30 miles from the coast for close to 30 years and the downed trees and torn up roof were the worst of the damage he sustained during any hurricane. In that 30 yrs he only fled from Mobile another four, maybe five times.

Property damage is the biggest concern, but that's what insurance is for right? Loss of life should be easily preventable if you take the precaution of evacuating well before the storm hits. This makes for some morbid reading but if you want to know what usually kills people during and after a hurricane this is pretty informative: Mortality Associated with Hurricane Katrina --- Florida and Alabama, August--October 2005
=============================
I don't know if this excerpt will make you feel better or worse, but it should give you an idea of how sporadic hurricanes are. You can go 10 years with nothing and then have two years back to back...

-1979 Frederic sept 12th 132 mph from the SSE heavy damage to mobile press 27.94 storm surge 12 ft.
-1985 Sept 2nd Hurricane Elena hits south with 120mph winds from the ESE
-1995 Aug 3rd Hurricane Erin hits with 80mph winds from the S.E
-1997 July 19th,Danny stalled 30 miles to south with 80mph from the WSW winds bar 29.06 30 inches of rain
-2004 ,sept 16th very early morning,Hurricane Ivan just East with 130mph winds moving NNE over Eastern Alabama with Ivan having a wind field approx 85 miles out.Moderate to heavy damage here from primarilly North & west winds.
-2005 Aug 29th,95mph from the south , Hurricane Katrina passes well west but large hurricane force wind field extends into Mobile.
Mobile Alabama Hurricanes

[whittone]

I have read so many things...one minute it sounds awesome to live down there and now after reading all of this I am not so sure... I have young children and I would really hate to have to drag them out of their environment every time bad weather approaches. And people have said that Daphne is up on a hill...but it seems that it doesnt matter that it does sit up that high. Everyone has said thats the safter place to live when it comes to weather, crime that sort of stuff...but it seems that its not the case. There is TS Lee down there now the only thing that we have to worry about here is tornadoes and they arent to common, Ive never seen one and I'm 30. I just dont want to move down there and buy my dream house and a stupid hurricane or TS come through and wipe it out along with everything that we own. I have all my kids things that I cant get back, that would bother me the most.

[southernnaturelover]

If you have well built house (most are nowadays) that's not in a flood zone, you'll be fine. The biggest inconvenience is the power being out. You may live here ten years and not experience a hurricane, then again, there could be a bad one this year.

[whittone]

but whats considered a flood zone?? daphne? spanish fort? fairhope? are these areas? and for the power being out...I told my husband we are going to buy a generator...im not going without power. my kids are too young and it would be horrible!!

[humacaena]

TS Lee has dropped a lot of rain, about 10" on the area, but that's it. The sun has been shinning for the last 2 hours...and most of the rain is moving north/east for now....and heading to GA, SC, and up north where areas are still under water from Irene.

There are thousands of families living in this area that do not live in a panic. You seem to not understand how safe it is. We have not had a hurricane since Katrina, 6 years ago...and that was not an issue in the Eastern Shore area. Ivan was quite destructive to the beach areas...and there were no homes destroyed in the ES area. I believe there have been more people killed by Irene than Ivan or Katrina...in Alabama.

Many people are jobless in the US, and would be grateful to have a good opportunity come their way. But if you are so panicked about this area, it's better to reconsider and let someone else take the chance. Many of us are enjoying our wonderful life down here.