Baldwin officials enforce evacuation

ROBERTSDALE, Ala. (WALA) - Mandatory evacuations for parts of Baldwin County began Monday morning.  By order of Governor Robert Bentley, people living in zones 1 and 2 were to begin evacuations as of 8 a.m. 

Business owners like Randy Meadows at Next Level Tattoos were boarding up and heading out.

Meadows said, "We're not gonna hit hard but still, a lot of wind can throw a lot of stuff around."

EMA Director Mitchell Sims said the local state of emergency took effect at noon.

Photos: Prepping for Isaac

A steady flow of traffic made its way north on Highway 59 Monday as visitors and residents hit the road to beat the expected bad weather.  One look down Beach Highway in Gulf Shores was enough to realize that the majority of vacationers had already left town by late morning. 

A few, like Denise Aldridge and her family from Missouri were still busy packing down their cars, cutting their vacations short because of Isaac.

“We knew it was a possibility coming down,” Aldridge said.  “We knew it, but we were just hoping it would take that turn and, uh…just didn’t happen.”

Gary Parker and his family just got to town Saturday from Indiana and will spend the rest of their vacation in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  They just wanted to enjoy every last minute at the beach before they left.

“We’re going to make our best effort to have fun for the next couple of hours,” Parker said.  “Then we’re going to pack up and start heading north.”

For others, Monday was a day for work.  Wayne Robertson just bought a house on Little Lagoon Pass a month ago and spent the day taking care of his investment.  He and four others stayed busy screwing down steel hurricane shutters.

“You can’t buy a house on the gulf I guess without expecting a hurricane,” Robertson said, shrugging his shoulders.  “Not necessarily this fast, but it’s going to come one day or another…may as well come right away.”

Others spent the day doing the same thing, but the majority of structures still had nothing protecting the windows…a sign that most homeowners are hoping for the best this time around.  City officials are urging those who stay to stay wary of changing weather conditions.

“These storms can change very quickly,” said Grant Brown with the city of Gulf Shores.  “People do not need to take this track to the west lightly.”

We did find one family enjoying the water, briefly.

Tonya Lewis said, "For probably a couple more minutes, and then we're goin out.”

Lewis and her family are locals, and said they're going to head east.

Lewis said, "Right now, we have the house boarded up, we got our bags packed so, we're gonna probably hold out 'til this evening."

This family has been through storms before, and they figure, better safe than sorry.

"I would advise everybody to get out. Just for a minute. You can replace everything, you can't replace people,” said Lewis.