Every household along the Alabama Gulf Coast intends to have a hurricane plan. Considerably fewer households actually have one written down, with a route chosen, a pet arrangement settled and an insurance policy that has been read within the last five years. The gap between intention and preparation is where storms do their damage.
The City of Foley is attempting to close that gap with its first-ever Hurricane Preparedness Expo, a free public event that gathers emergency response agencies, city departments and local businesses in a single room so residents can accomplish in one morning what would otherwise take weeks of phone calls.
Event Details
- Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2026
- Time: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Location: Foley Civic Center, 407 E. Laurel Ave., Foley
- Cost: Free and open to all community members
The five-hour window is deliberately wide, allowing residents to drop in around work schedules rather than committing to a fixed presentation time.
The Timing Is Not Accidental
Mid-July sits at a specific point in the Atlantic hurricane season. The season formally opens June 1, but activity in the Gulf of Mexico historically accelerates from August through October. A July expo lands in the window when preparation is still genuinely possible, before the National Hurricane Center is naming storms in the eastern Gulf and before the plywood aisle at every hardware store in Baldwin County is empty.
Anyone who lived through Hurricane Sally in 2020 understands the difference those weeks make. Preparation done in a calm July is thorough. Preparation done in a 48-hour panic is not.
What the City Says It Is Trying to Accomplish
Thurston Bullock, public safety director for the city of Foley, framed the expo in terms of removing friction from a process most residents find intimidating.
“Preparedness is one of the most effective tools we have when it comes to protecting lives and property,” Bullock said. “The Hurricane Preparedness Expo gives residents the opportunity to connect directly with trusted local experts, learn what resources are available, and make a plan before a storm is approaching.”
He added that the intent is for people to leave in a different state of mind than they arrived in. “We want everyone to leave better prepared and more confident heading into hurricane season,” he said.
Aimed at Newcomers and Longtime Residents Alike
The expo is explicitly designed for two very different audiences. The first is the substantial population of new arrivals. Baldwin County has been among the fastest-growing counties in Alabama, and Foley has absorbed a significant share of that growth. Many of those new residents have relocated from places where a hurricane is a thing you watch on television, not a thing you evacuate from. They frequently do not know what a storm surge zone is, whether their home is in one, or what their flood insurance actually covers.
The second audience is longtime residents who have grown complacent, or whose plans were made under different circumstances. A plan drawn up when the children were young and there was no elderly parent in the house is no longer the right plan. An evacuation route chosen a decade ago may no longer reflect current road capacity or construction.
What to Bring and What to Ask
Residents attending will get the most value by arriving with specific questions rather than general anxiety. Worth asking:
- Is my address in an evacuation zone, and which one?
- What does my homeowners policy actually exclude? Wind and flood are frequently separate coverages, and many people discover the distinction only after a claim is denied.
- Where do I go with pets? Not every shelter accepts them.
- How will the city notify me? Emergency alert systems require registration in many jurisdictions.
- What is the plan for medically dependent household members who require power for equipment?
Part of a Broader Resilience Effort
City officials describe the expo as one component of a wider push to build a more resilient Foley. Bringing local resources and expertise together under a single roof lowers the barrier for residents who would otherwise never track down the individual agencies on their own.
For more information, residents may contact Emergency Management Coordinator Krystal Bodiford at [email protected] or by phone at 251-437-9668.
Foley’s expo arrives against a real regional backdrop. Baldwin County has ranked among Alabama’s fastest-growing counties, and Foley has absorbed a large share of that growth, meaning a substantial share of current residents relocated from places where hurricanes are something watched on television rather than something they evacuate from. Many of those newcomers do not yet know whether their address falls inside a storm-surge evacuation zone or what their flood insurance actually covers, two gaps the expo is built to close.
The memory of Hurricane Sally, which struck the Alabama coast in 2020, lends the timing weight. Sally made clear how much difference a few prepared weeks can make versus a 48-hour panic, when hardware-store plywood aisles empty and evacuation routes clog. Mid-July sits in the calm before the Gulf’s historical August-through-October acceleration, which is exactly why the city chose it: preparation done in July is thorough, while preparation done under a named-storm deadline is not.
The event gathers emergency response agencies, city departments and local businesses under one roof at the Foley Civic Center, 407 E. Laurel Ave., from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 14, 2026. Organizers encourage residents to arrive with specific questions: Is my home in an evacuation zone? Does my policy separate wind and flood coverage? Where do I take pets, since not every shelter accepts them? How will the city notify me, and what is the plan for medically dependent household members who require power?
City officials describe the expo as one piece of a broader push to build a more resilient Foley. Bringing local expertise together under a single roof lowers the barrier for residents who would otherwise never track down individual agencies on their own. More information is available from Emergency Management Coordinator Krystal Bodiford at [email protected] or 251-437-9668.
The National Hurricane Center, part of the National Weather Service, issues the tropical outlooks and storm tracks that Baldwin County residents follow each season, and local emergency managers use those forecasts to time evacuations and stage resources. A July expo gives residents a chance to learn how those alerts reach them and which county systems they should register for, since emergency notification often requires residents to opt in rather than being automatic.
Practical preparation, emergency managers stress, is built from small repeatable steps: assembling a supply kit, securing important documents, identifying an evacuation route before a storm forms, and reviewing insurance coverage while the sun is shining. None of those steps is complicated on its own, but together they determine whether a household is ready when a named storm turns toward the Gulf.