As Tropical Storm Bertha churned through the Gulf of Mexico, Dauphin Island found itself doing what it always does when a tropical system approaches: bracing for impact while some beachgoers lingered just long enough to watch the waves roll in. Town leaders raised double red flags Tuesday, closing the water to swimmers, even as the island’s low-lying geography and long-running erosion battle made this storm feel familiar.
Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier said the town moved early to prepare residents and visitors for possible saltwater flooding and worsening rip currents. Officials asked people to move vehicles out of flood-prone areas on the island’s West End before nightfall and offered sandbags through the town’s Public Works Department for anyone who needed them. Offsite parking areas at Green Park and near Dauphin Island Elementary School gave residents and vacationers somewhere to relocate cars away from the water.
Collier said the island’s position as Alabama’s only barrier island means it typically absorbs the first and hardest hits from any tropical system headed toward the mainland. “We’re the ones that’s going to get the most impacts probably the quickest part of the impacts,” he said, noting that storm surge, waves and rip currents are all “accentuated” on a barrier island. Because much of Dauphin Island sits at such a low elevation, even modest rises in water can produce saltwater flooding in vulnerable spots, particularly along the West End.
The same surf that worried town officials also highlighted a longer-running challenge for the island: erosion. Barrier islands naturally shift as wind, waves and tides move sand along the shoreline, and tropical systems speed up that process, stripping sand from beaches and dunes while adding to flooding risk in low areas. Collier said the town has already completed a restoration project on the island’s East End and is preparing a similar effort for the West End, with construction expected to begin in early 2027. That project will not help with Bertha, he said, but it is designed to cut down on the kind of routine flooding and erosion the West End experiences during tropical weather.
Despite the warnings, Bertha’s rough surf drew a mix of reactions from people at the beach Tuesday. Mobile resident Debbie Shell said she and others came out simply to see the whitecaps building offshore, calling it a chance to enjoy the spectacle while conditions still allowed it. Visitor Hailee Chappell said her family kept to dry sand, building sandcastles with her kids rather than testing the surf, while one child on the beach summed up the storm in simpler terms: just a big rainstorm passing through.
Not everyone treated the red flags as a reason to stay out of the water. Ocean Springs resident Paul Weaver headed out to surf anyway, saying the rough conditions created some of the best waves of the summer lull, though he acknowledged the water demanded real caution and know-how. Other beachgoers were more careful. Shelley Yukers, who grew up in Mobile and now lives in Moss Point, said she kept her family’s kids close to shore rather than risk the current pulling them out, while Arkansas visitor Darin Phelan said he planned to enjoy what he could of the beach day but would pull back if wind and surf worsened.
Collier said Dauphin Island does not take any Gulf storm lightly, however minor the expected impacts, and he urged residents and visitors alike to keep watching the forecast rather than assume a storm’s track or strength won’t change. “We’re very accustomed to storms, and I feel like the town, our staff, we’re very prepared,” he said. “We only encourage and hope that our citizens are doing the same.”