Plywood, Prayers and a Last Cast: Baldwin County Residents Brace as Hurricane Isaias Closes In

FOLEY, Ala. — Plywood over the windows, a cot at a church shelter and, for a couple of anglers, one last cast into Weeks Bay: that is how Baldwin County residents brace for Hurricane Isaias, which spent Friday, Oct. 9, closing in on the Gulf Coast as a powerful Category 3 storm.

Hours before the hurricane was expected to make landfall, Raul Aguilar Salazar checked the plywood he had fastened over the windows of his Foley home. Salazar has lived in Foley for 11 years, and he still remembers Hurricane Sally in 2020 clearly: fallen trees, a flooded front yard and a power outage that lasted nine days.

“We had a hard time from that. We decided to put it up (the plywood) to protect our house. We are hoping everything will be good. We are praying for that.”

Salazar is the pastor of Casa de Luz, a Spanish-language Christian fellowship that meets at The Island Church in Orange Beach. Next door, his neighbors had taken the same precaution, covering a large front window with plywood.

“We’re just praying,” said Eylin Cantarero, whose biggest worry was that the home’s windows could break during the storm.

A storm that shifted, but not far enough

Residents across the county spent Friday making final preparations ahead of the hurricane’s expected arrival that night. Isaias carried maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, and while its track had shifted slightly to the east, officials warned that Baldwin County, and especially its coastal communities, could still see significant impacts.

As of 3:15 p.m. Friday, the National Hurricane Center placed the storm about 115 miles south-southeast of Mobile, moving north at 17 mph. Forecasters expected it to come ashore east of Pensacola sometime between 7 p.m. and midnight.

Unlike Sally, which struck Baldwin County as a slow-moving Category 2 hurricane and soaked the area for hours, Isaias was expected to move through quickly and be well inland by Saturday morning. Sally remains the last major storm to hit the county, and its memory shaped how many people prepared this week.

Going with a gut feeling

Some residents decided not to take chances. At St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Foley, which was serving as a temporary storm shelter, Marcus Weaver said he had left his home along Weeks Bay to spend the night at the church.

Weaver, a lifelong resident, said his family’s roots in the area go back to Nicholas Weaver, the 19th-century Irish immigrant for whom Weeks Bay is named. On Friday, he said, he was relying on instinct.

“It doesn’t feel right right now,” Weaver said. “It shifted more toward the east, so I don’t know. It’s right there at the inlet of Mobile Bay. It’s just a gut feeling.”

Weeks Bay is a small, shallow bay on the eastern side of Mobile Bay, fed by the Fish and Magnolia rivers. Those rivers and the low ground around them are among the areas Baldwin County emergency managers routinely warn about when storm surge pushes water up the bay and into tributaries.

Shelters fill through the day

Both of the county’s storm shelters were busy throughout Friday.

At the Baldwin County Coliseum in Robertsdale, an American Red Cross shelter opened the day with 39 clients. By noon, that number had climbed to 65.

At St. Paul’s in Foley, Patty Morgan of Southern Relief, the nonprofit overseeing shelter operations there, said it was hard to predict how many people would come overnight. It was the first time Southern Relief had run a hurricane shelter at the church; the organization’s earlier shelter operations had been during winter weather.

“Our expectation is that if someone needs a safe place to stay, they are welcome here,” Morgan said. “There is no limit.”

People staying at either shelter were asked to bring personal items, bedding and medications, and meals were provided at both locations. Later Friday, Baldwin County officials announced that the St. Paul’s shelter had reached capacity and directed anyone else needing shelter to the Coliseum, at 19477 Fairground Road in Robertsdale, which also offers a pet-friendly shelter.

Robin Youngstrom of Elberta, who was born and raised in Orange Beach, was among those staying at St. Paul’s. She said it was only the second time she could remember evacuating ahead of a storm; the first was before Hurricane Opal in 1995. Youngstrom said her biggest concern was falling trees, recalling the widespread damage Sally caused. She said she hoped to go home later Saturday once the storm had passed.

Both shelters were expected to stay open as long as they are needed.

On the beach: ‘We’ll stop responding to calls at some point’

In Gulf Shores, beaches were closed, and Gulf Shores Fire Rescue had been in preparation mode for days. Chief Mark Sealy said his crews were ready.

“We have all of our prep done,” Sealy said. “We have some crews out because you know, you have curious people always wanting to go down but there is a mandatory evacuation for nonresidents. We’re encouraging everybody else to leave, can’t make them, but certainly can keep them out of the water.”

Lifeguards were still on the beach Friday morning, but Sealy said he would have to pull all of his crews at some point as conditions worsened.

“We’ll stop responding to calls at some point,” Sealy said. “People have to realize that at a certain time, we have to stop responding. I have to watch out for the safety of our crews.”

Officials were watching for strong winds and storm surge. Sealy said the city will be ready to deal with beach erosion and downed trees once the storm passes, and that Gulf Shores has mutual aid agreements with other agencies, including crews heading to the coast from around the state.

Gov. Kay Ivey’s mandatory evacuation order applies to tourists, visitors and non-residents in Baldwin County south of the Intracoastal Waterway, including Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. Permanent residents in low-lying areas have been urged to leave voluntarily.

Spanish Fort hands out re-entry passes

On the Eastern Shore, Spanish Fort police were issuing re-entry passes to residents and business owners in flood-prone areas along the Causeway and in other parts of the city. Anyone returning after the hurricane will need to show the pass to get back to their property.

Officers delivered letters and passes door to door in case roads close later. People picking up a pass must provide proof that they live in, own property in or represent a business in the affected zone.

The Causeway, which carries U.S. 90 and U.S. 98 across the head of Mobile Bay between Mobile and Spanish Fort, sits just above the water and is lined with restaurants, bait shops and marinas, making it one of the first places to flood when surge drives water up the bay.

One last cast

Not everyone spent the afternoon nailing plywood. Jacob Krause and Brandon More, friends from Silverhill, passed Friday afternoon fishing from a pier on Weeks Bay.

The weather was rainy and cool, and they hoped that would improve their luck. It took nearly an hour before either got a bite, with More eventually reeling in a small fish. Neither planned to leave early.

“We’ll be here until we run out of bait,” Krause said. “We heard there might be some pretty good fishing before the storm. Only one way to find out.”

What residents should do now

With the storm arriving overnight, county and city officials asked residents to stay put and stay safe:

• Stay off the roads. Baldwin County has issued a countywide travel advisory, and Gulf Shores and Orange Beach have curfews from 7 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Saturday, with Spanish Fort’s running from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m.
• Treat any intersection with a dark traffic signal as a four-way stop if you must drive.
• Stay out of the Gulf. Beaches are under double red flags, and surf and rip currents are deadly.
• Never drive or walk through flooded roads, and stay away from downed power lines.
• Keep phones charged and keep more than one way to receive alerts, including Alert Baldwin and a NOAA Weather Radio.
• Call 911 only for emergencies, and understand that responders will not be able to answer calls once winds become too dangerous.

For residents like Salazar and Weaver, the waiting was the hardest part. With the plywood up and the shelters open, much of Baldwin County spent Friday night doing what Cantarero described: hoping and praying the storm would pass quickly.