Foley High School - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Foley, AL)

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Making an impact Winds and pounding surf make Elena ' s presence known Bread and tape were nowhere to be found. Batteries and flash- lights became prized posses- sions. Football games all along the coast were postponed until further notice. Residents of the Alabama Gulf Coast taped or boarded windows, packed a couple changes of clothes, gathered cherished photo- graphs, and fled inland in bump- er to bumper traffic. Sitting on pins and needles coastal families tuned in to lo ' cal radio and television stations awaiting news of the approach ing hurricane. On Friday, Au gust 30, predictions targeted coastal Mississippi as the point of landfall, with highest winds aimed at the Alabama coast. Residents spent 16 anxious hours as the fickle storm stalled offshore. Finally, the storm etched eastward and an all-clear was signaled around 5 p.m. causing residents to breathe a sigh of relief. Suddenly, the Florida panhandle appeared to be the target of Elena ' s fury. Unaffected families returned home to untape windows, put pictures back on walls, and move lawn furniture out of the house and back into the yard. Rescheduled for Saturday night, area football games gave residents the opportunity to re- cover from the false alarm and share hurricane shelter exper- iences while cheering on their favorite teams. The respite was brief, though, as Elena made a 180- degree turn and edged closer and closer again to the Alabama coast on Sunday. Weary resi- dents repeated their previous precautionary measures and evacuated immediately. Pound- ing waves and rising winds fore- told the imminent danger. As the hurricane gained mo- mentum, treetops of young pine trees hugged the ground. Branches snapped. Winds whipped along the coast leav- ing a trail of broken windows, loose shingles, and sinking boardwalks. Elena had arrived. Early the next day, power company employees went to work restoring electricity to ap- proximately 8000 Baldwin County homes. Older family members dragged branches from their yards and removed tape and boards from windows, while school-age children re joiced upon hearing that sum ' mer vacation had been ex tended for two days. Clean-up crews on the beach began clear ing sand and debris off impass- able roads, with beachfront property owners tallying dam age to homes and coastline Combined damage to busin esses and shoreline, as well as loss of Labor Day weekend rev- enue, totaled an estimated $25 million. Crashing into the coast, Elena stole shingles and took tree limbs with her, but the shin- gles were replaced, plant life re- grew, and bread appeared on store shelves once again. I P Hurricane Elena