Alabama Gulf Coast

A project aimed at helping restore passenger rail service to the Gulf Coast for the first time in nearly two decades is well underway. The start of the Gulf Coast Corridor Improvement project began on Oct. 22 in downtown Mobile with a groundbreaking ceremony.

Alabama broadcaster Mel Showers, who broke racial barriers in a Deep South newsroom and became a beloved and trusted newsman along the state’s Gulf Coast, has died. He was 78. WKRG-TV, the station where he worked for 50 years, announced his death over the weekend.

Members of the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department are participating in the Fill the Boot drive. Funds raised help support Muscular Dystrophy Associations efforts to fund groundbreaking research, accelerate treatments and cures, as well as funding support services.

Helene has made landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida's northwestern coast as a Category 4 hurricane. Forecasters say the storm is threatening a “catastrophic” storm surge in northwestern parts of Florida as well as damaging winds, rains and flash floods. In Alabama, the impact of the storm is lessening across the state.

Mayor Sandy Stimpson and City Council Vice President Gina Gregory will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Lavretta Park at 9 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 27, to celebrate Mobile’s newest public pickleball courts. To showcase the newest courts, the city will also host a Pickleball Clinic at Lavretta Park on Saturday, Sept. 28.

A large part of Alabama continues to be at risk of flooding through Friday morning as Helene is predicted to intensify as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico. Football fans are also wondering about the weather conditions with the high-stakes game between Georgia and Alabama set for Saturday.

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) is expanding wildlife conservation efforts by buying 79 acres of the Fort Morgan peninsula. ADCNR said the price of this underdeveloped beach front property was $16 million, purchased with funds from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund, and the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act.

Meteorologists are cautioning Alabamians about Tropical Storm Helene and the storm's possible impact on the state in the following days. This includes storms and a threat of some flooding, with federal aid now being directed to the Yellowhammer State.

Florida A&M University has postponed its upcoming college football game against Alabama A&M because of Tropical Storm Helene. The Rattlers rescheduled the game for Friday, Nov. 29, in anticipation of Helene strengthening into a major hurricane Wednesday while moving north toward the United States.

Registration is still open for the City of Mobile's Household Hazardous Waste Collection Event set for Sept. 21. The free event allows residents to discard items that the city cannot accept during routine trash and garbage collection.