Hurricane Georges Damage on Dauphin Island, Alabama
A few of us from the New Orleans I.S. department of Mobil Oil volunteered some time to help one of the employees of Mobil.
Her house is on Dauphin Island and about 3 feet of sand was washed in from the storm surge of Hurricane Georges that had to be taken out.
Here are a few of the pictures I took that show the force of a Hurricane.
(Above) Here is a before and after as we were digging Pam's garage out. Notice the thickness of the sand in the background of the photo on the right.
(above) A few other photos digging out the yard and removing the plywood from the windows.
(above) The photo on the left is from behind her house, you can see the tops of a metal setee and table sticking out from the sand. The right photo is still digging out the garage. Good thing the Bobcat fit under the beams, we didn't want to try digging this with shovels.
Another shot as we
were pushing the sand from around the house. Before the storm all
the sand you see in the distance used to be grass.
Notice were the slab is in relation to Lonny standing next to it. This is a house on the beach. The storm surge pushed 5 feet of sand inland. Most of these houses are now leaning. The photo on the right is someone's SUV that was pushed into the pilings by the force of the water and buried.
The photo on the left is a small sail boat that had imbedded itself into the cross members of a house. On the right is whats left of a house when it is torn off its supporting pilings.
This shows the
amount of beach that has eroded. There was another 50 feet of
beach in front of the houses and about 5 feet higher before the
storm. Also all the stairs that was used to access the houses are
gone from the force of the wind and waves.
The photo on the left is the splintered remains of the pilings that held the house on the right. The house is about 300 feet inland, being pushed by the storm. This is kind of ironic, there is a small window that is still boarded up and not broken. Also notice how the rest of the houses are leaning.
Here are some photos Mike took with his digital camera.
Click
on the thumbnail for the full size photo.
The GIS construction crew after a day of fun in the sun and sand.
From left to right, (bottom row): Pam and Mike. Also shown are Pam's dogs who are very happy to have their dog run sand free once again.
(standing) Rick, Lonny, Ken, Jake and Terrence
Ken operating the Bobcat. As a lan admin he makes a good heavy equipment operator.(Just kidding Ken)
A couple of shots of the desolate conditions on the island. The west end of the island was the hardest hit.
Another view as we were digging out the
garage.
The distructive power of a hurricane is
shown here in this inside view of one the houses that was knocked
off its pilings.
Remember all photos on this page are protected under copyright laws and are the proptery of Jake Hellbach or Mike Zuelke.
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