Many BLB roads still underwater

BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. (WALA) - It was a long two days for Bayou La Batre Police Cpl Harold Windham.  When FOX10 News talked to him Wednesday he’d been working almost nonstop since his shift began 8 a.m. Tuesday.  

Cpl. Windham took us along in one of the department's military style jeeps Wednesday morning.  It was a call about a stranded motorist.

"The bumps you feel in the vehicle is the left side of the road. We're on the wrong side of the road," said Windham.

He talked about the dangers of driving on flooded roads as we made our way along Shell Belt Road which was mostly under water.

Windham said fortunately police didn't get any emergency calls overnight.

Some major roads and a number of side streets were flooded. 

"The wind and rain came in waves. There were times when there was absolutely no wind and rain at all, and then it would come in and it would be raining pretty hard. And the wind would pick up pretty fast, and after midnight the water started coming up on the roads," he said.

Windham said the worst was probably high tide this morning.

The stranded vehicle was gone before Windham got to the location on Shell Belt Road.  The police corporal said the driver was lucky.  Windham talked about how easy it is to get into trouble on a flooded street.

"It's real hard to see where there's any road at all there.  It's just all water," he said.

FOX10 News found most of the flooding on the south side of the city. Gulf waters rushed over Coden Belt Road at the intersection of Hemley.

"We hit high tide an hour ago or so.  We're hoping since the storms moving further and further west that the water will start to come back down."

Most people we talked to feel pretty lucky as far as Isaac. They know it could have been much worse.

Many prepared for the worse, and they’re thankful it didn’t happen.  What people in our area did get was a lot of water that resulted in flooded streets. 

The causeway leading to the Dauphin Island Bridge was remains closed.  Sheriff’s deputies were blocking the entrance to the causeway that was still under water in some places Wednesday.

Those people who didn’t get off the island before noon Tuesday had to stay.

Ren Best lives on the Island and works in Mobile.  She told FOX10 News her husband was supposed to meet her with their bags Tuesday.  But he didn’t leave soon enough. The bridge and causeway closed leaving him stuck on the water.  Best said she stayed the night with family in Mobile.

There were crews working to clear the causeway Wednesday, but police said late in the day that they didn’t know when it would reopen.

In the meantime, a curfew remains in effect on the island from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The power is still out on the island, because of a mishap involving a sailboat Tuesday, not Isaac.  That problem might not be resolved until Thursday