Mobile Alabama

[Ivanhater]

Well so far Mobile has been very lucky when it comes to hurricanes, Ivan was heading for Mobile until an hour before landfall then it became "Pensacola's storm" Mobile was in the path of Katrina for a while and any jog to the east would put Mobile in big trouble..the city sits on a bay and could do some serious damage...this is my first year in Mobile for college and would like to know what would happen to Mobile if they are not so lucky in the future

[Brent]

Well so far Mobile has been very lucky when it comes to hurricanes, Ivan was heading for Mobile until an hour before landfall then it became "Pensacola's storm" Mobile was in the path of Katrina for a while and any jog to the east would put Mobile in big trouble..the city sits on a bay and could do some serious damage...this is my first year in Mobile for college and would like to know what would happen to Mobile if they are not so lucky in the future

The city is very vulnerable to storm surge... if there's a major hurricane coming your way, LEAVE.

[wxmann_91]

Mobile came within a hair of becoming completely submerged in Katrina. Definitely not a good place to be when a major cane comes..

[Dr. Jonah Rainwater]

How bad was Katrina's surge in Mobile? All I've seen on the news are pictures of flooded parking lots and that oil rig wedged under the bridge.

[Derek Ortt]

the surge in Mobile was about 12 feet, about 50% higher than Frederic's

[Frank P]

the surge in Mobile was about 12 feet, about 50% higher than Frederic's

Here is some surge data from the NHC's archives regarding Hurricane Fredrick's storm surge...

they reported a surge of 12 feet just south of the Mobile tunnel and 8 feet just north of the Mobile tunnel...

ftp://ftp.nhc.noaa.gov/pub/storm_archiv ... elim03.gif

[Lindaloo]

Mobile's waterfront saw significant flooding. The state docks and water street were all under water.

[AL Chili Pepper]

I think both Georges' and Katrina's surge was higher than Frederic's, with Katrina's being the worst. Water was probably 6' deep on Water Street, and got up to the front door of where I work, which is around 1 mile from the Bay. If Katrina would have struck further east around Pascagoula or Dauphin Island, it wouldn't have been pretty at all. They had forecasted up to 18 feet of water in downtown during Ivan with water all the way to Broad Street, so we have been fortunate.

West Mobile, where I am you probably are, is clear of the flood zone. For that reason, I'll stay off the road and ride them out.

[f5]

imagine the kind of surge around the towns got around st louis bay into Mobile bay

[hurricanetrack]

I remember some of the first Katrina forecasts showing a landfall anywhere from 84 to 86 west longitude. I was at one point a little worried that it would head in to the "arm pit" of Florida- that area north of Cedar Key and SE of Tallahassee- no man's land. It was interesting to watch the track shift west out of Florida, across Alabama, Mississippi and then in to SE LA.

[Jim Cantore]

Well so far Mobile has been very lucky when it comes to hurricanes, Ivan was heading for Mobile until an hour before landfall then it became "Pensacola's storm" Mobile was in the path of Katrina for a while and any jog to the east would put Mobile in big trouble..the city sits on a bay and could do some serious damage...this is my first year in Mobile for college and would like to know what would happen to Mobile if they are not so lucky in the future

The city is very vulnerable to storm surge... if there's a major hurricane coming your way, LEAVE.

look to your south, Dauphin island could be the next last island

[Ixolib]

I remember some of the first Katrina forecasts showing a landfall anywhere from 84 to 86 west longitude. I was at one point a little worried that it would head in to the "arm pit" of Florida- that area north of Cedar Key and SE of Tallahassee- no man's land. It was interesting to watch the track shift west out of Florida, across Alabama, Mississippi and then in to SE LA.

Yep - That original track really took a swing to the west, then more west, then a little more west, then... Well, it was amazing to see the updates. Yet another interesting aspect of chasing, I'd imagine??!!

[Audrey2Katrina]

Well so far Mobile has been very lucky when it comes to hurricanes, Ivan was heading for Mobile until an hour before landfall then it became "Pensacola's storm" Mobile was in the path of Katrina for a while and any jog to the east would put Mobile in big trouble..the city sits on a bay and could do some serious damage...this is my first year in Mobile for college and would like to know what would happen to Mobile if they are not so lucky in the future

The city is very vulnerable to storm surge... if there's a major hurricane coming your way, LEAVE.

Agree completely, New Orleans has Lakes Pontchartrain, Catherine, Borgne, and the Mississippi river to worry about; Places all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast have issus with Bays like that of St. Louis, and Biloxi, and Mobile has a "Huge" funnel shaped bay that could usher in an incredible surge if a worst case scenario were to hit there, JMO; but perhaps some of the folks more familiar with the offshore water depths could shed more light on the potential there for major surge... either way, I reiterate--if anything remotely major heads up for that bay... LEAVE!

A2K

[Dr. Jonah Rainwater]

Wait, if a 12-foot surge hit Mobile, why wasn't there widespread destruction? Storms with 12-foot surges have caused alot of damage before.

[docjoe]

Wait, if a 12-foot surge hit Mobile, why wasn't there widespread destruction? Storms with 12-foot surges have caused alot of damage before.

A couple of guesses here
1) the head of Mobile Bay is a large river delta system with minimal development along a causeway
2) The waterfront of Mobile(west side of bay) is primarily industrial with few small structures to be washed away
3)The eastern shore of the bay, especially in the upper reaches, is quite elevated above sealevel

having said this I havent lived there since 1995 so no doubt I could be wrong. I know for fact the SE part of the bay was leveled by surge (donw below Point Clear). I imagine Dog River and Fowl River areas were inundated and we have the seen the video from Bayou La batre and Dauphin Island

docjoe

[Ixolib]

Wait, if a 12-foot surge hit Mobile, why wasn't there widespread destruction? Storms with 12-foot surges have caused alot of damage before.

Was kinda wondering about that myself... Strangely, we've heard very little - if anything - about Katrina's impact on Mobile proper. Certainly, none of the media has jumped on it, and I watch both Channel 10 and Channel 5 news out of Mobile regularly, and even they don't have much on Katrina coverage except every now and then a little blurb on Bayou LaBatre and Dauphin Island.

[Lindaloo]

I can't remember which hurricane sucked all the water out of Mobile Bay. Was it Frederic or Georges?

[Derek Ortt]

I think it was Danny from 1997 that sucked out the water

[TMT]

During the Katrina coverage on CNN, they showed the storm surge into some area of Mobile, and it was only two to three feet below the tops of the lightpoles. I can't imagine why there wasn't more damage or even more fatalities, since there also wasn't a large-scale evacuation beforehand, as far as I've been able to gather.

[pelican13]

The only evacuation order for Mobile county was for everyone south of interstate 10.,which included me.For Dennis the entire county was under an evacuation order,then Dennis turned and all we got was basically thunderstorms.