Hurricane Ike Not a Threat to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach

When you live in Gulf Shores Alabama and have family and friends all across the country, something happens each hurricane season. As soon as a storm enters the Gulf of Mexico my phone starts ringing and the emails start rolling in. Everyone wants to know if I am okay. Usually the weather at the time is a perfect blue sky and I almost want to take a photo and email it back to show them.

Of course with all the media hype about hurricanes these days I can see why people think that each hurricane destroys every single point from Key West to Brownsville Texas. The storms can look scary on the radar and the areas that do get a direct hit are really bad. But that doesn't mean that everyone is impacted. And for the areas that are hit, the recovery work begins and very soon businesses and schools are back open and we get on with life.

So as Hurricane Ike makes its way towards the Texas coast the only real impact for areas like Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Pensacola will be rough water with strong rip currents and likely some minor flooding in the low-lying areas. We will be fine and we will be able to help our neighbors from Texas and Louisiana who will need a safe place to stay during the storm.