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From the Mobile Register
Battleship Park sees extensive damage
Everything on the Causeway is flooded,' says Spanish Fort police spokeswoman
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
By GEORGE WERNETH
Staff Reporter
Battleship Memorial Park on the Causeway sustained extensive damage Monday from the winds of Hurricane Katrina, which left the park's aircraft pavilion apparently battered into a "total loss" and its centerpiece USS Alabama listing, officials said.
The damage appears to be "between $1.5 and $2 million," said Bill Tunnell, the park's executive director, and he noted that this was just a preliminary estimate and was "conservative."
As for the rest of the Causeway, dotted with some of the area's best seafood restaurants, the news also was not good. "Everything on the Causeway is flooded," according to a spokeswoman for the Spanish Fort Police Department, which has jurisdiction over much of that strip across the northern end of Mobile Bay. The extent of the damage to these establishments was not immediately determined.
Meanwhile, Tunnell said the park could possibly be closed for weeks for repairs but said a further inspection of the damage would have to be made before he could know for sure. He said there was also about 2 feet of water in the park's gift shop.
"One of the leading tourist attractions in the state of Alabama has taken it on the chin," Tunnell said.
"From all reports, damage to the park was worse than damage (inflicted) by Frederic," Tunnell said, referring to Hurricane Frederic, a Category 3 hurricane that hammered the Alabama coast in 1979.
The park's director said about 18 members of the park staff and their families rode out Katrina's fury inside the battleship as members have done voluntarily dating back to Hurricane Camille, a Category 5 storm which made a direct hit on the Mississippi coast in 1969.
Tunnell said the 18 members on the vessel were not in any danger but said they could be stranded on the World War II battleship for several days as much of the park was under 4 feet of water Monday. He said their vehicles -- which they drove up a gangway onto the ship before Katrina struck -- also could not be removed right away.
He said the concrete gangway that was used to drive the vehicles onto the ship was badly damaged and could not be used to drive the vehicles off the vessel.
Tunnell has said in the past that the USS Alabama, which has been the centerpiece of the park since it opened during January 1965, is "the safest place in the area to be during a hurricane." He noted that the 680-foot-long battleship weighs 80 million pounds and is anchored in some 20 feet of Mobile Bay mud.
While the battleship was left listing toward the port side, Tunnell said, it is not believed to have incurred any serious damage. "The ship has shifted its position, and will have to be straightened back up." He said this also occurred during Camille.
While Tunnell reported that damage to the aircraft pavilion was severe, he said the dozen or so vintage warplanes inside apparently "are all repairable."
Bill Parsons, who has been an employee of the park since it opened more than 40 years ago, said the damage inflicted on the park by Katrina was the worse he had ever seen there in any hurricane, Tunnell said.
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