By Alabama Public Radio
Mobile, AL – Reports say Hurricane Ivan destroyed 44 houses on Dauphin Island and damaged 110 others so badly that they may face demolition. Town officials say the damage is greater than they initially predicted. Town building inspector Jim Reaves says they originally estimated that 20 houses were lost to Ivan's seven-foot storm surge. Reaves says most of the destroyed houses did face the Gulf. He also says all of those homes were older and were not built within the past 18 months, when contractors began building to a higher standard on the island.