Gulf Coast

Lulu Gribbin, of Mountain Brook, was 15 when she survived a shark attack off the coast of Florida. She lost her left hand, part of her right leg and almost her life. Gribbin’s story has inspired new federal legislation to authorize emergency alerts to mobile phones to warn beachgoers when a shark has bitten someone in the area. Her home state of Alabama approved such a warning system last year.

The first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season formed Wednesday near the Gulf Coast, bringing intense rain and the threat of dangerous flash floods to states including Texas and Louisiana, meteorologists said. Tropical Storm Arthur was a disorganized cluster of storms that brought rain for days over parts of eastern Mexico and the Gulf. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said conditions were conducive for a short-lived tropical storm to form.

The National Hurricane Center is watching a cluster of storms along the Gulf Coast could become the first named tropical storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season. The storms threatened to bring heavy downpours that could lead to dangerous floods across southern states including Texas and Louisiana.

A new shark alert system, inspired by a teen who survived an attack last year, that warns beachgoers when a shark has bitten someone in the vicinity will be established in Alabama under legislation signed by Governor Kay Ivey. The system will issue a public notice to cellphones when there's been a shark attack nearby.

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.

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.