Tropical Storm Lee dumps rain on an already-soggy South, causing scattered flooding and power outages. The storm’s presence could be felt on Dauphin Island, Ala. where waves broke on empty beaches.
Dauphin Island is a town in Mobile County, Alabama (U.S.), on a barrier island also named Dauphin Island (split by the Katrina Cut), at the Gulf of Mexico. The population was 1,371 at the 2000 census.
The Gulf of Mexico is to the south of the barrier island; the Mississippi Sound and Mobile Bay are to the north. The Dauphin Island’s eastern end helps to define the mouth of Mobile Bay.
Dauphin Island is home to Fort Gaines, Dauphin Island Sea Lab, The Estuarium public aquarium, the Dauphin Island Airport, boat ramps, a large public pier, historics sites, several restaurants, new condominium developments, and numerous private homes. Beaches attract tourism, and fishing is a popular activity in the waters around the island. The island is connected to the mainland by the Gordon Persons Bridge.
Hurricane Katrina damaged parts of Dauphin Island on August 29, 2005. Some homes on the west end of the island were destroyed, and the Katrina Cut was formed as a channel splitting off the western part. However, most areas of the Central and East end of the island experienced little flooding from the storm surge. Unlike typical storm surge effects on a mainland coastline and affected waterways, surge moves around islands and over the land mass without the mounding up of water experienced on the mainland stretches.
Dauphin Island was also recently affected by worries about the gulf shores “Redneck Riviera” after BP Oil Spill — see The Cardinal Gulf Shores Alabama ‘Redneck Riviera’ Inhabitants Worried by Oil Spill