MOBILE COUNTY, Ala. — Tropical Storm Cristobal pushed water over the pier at a Fowl River marina on Sunday, June 7, 2020, as rain and storm surge from the Gulf combined to swamp the popular boating spot south of Mobile.
By midday the surge had risen high enough that some of the marina’s pier pilings were barely poking above the waterline. One boat owner at the docks estimated the surge had climbed to around five feet — the highest he had seen it there in some time.
There was at least one bit of good luck: most of the boats that normally berth at the marina had been moved before the storm arrived, leaving fewer vessels exposed to the rising water.
Cristobal, which made landfall in southeastern Louisiana before swinging north toward the Gulf Coast, spread bands of rain and onshore flow across coastal Alabama throughout the weekend, with the heaviest coastal impacts along bayside communities like Fowl River, Coden and Mon Louis Island.