Southern District of Alabama Bankruptcy Cases

The Gulf of Mexico’s influence on Alabama’s geography is both subtle and not so subtle. Subtly, it means that areas of Alabama are more vulnerable to hurricanes than those at higher latitudes (like New York City). On a more obvious level, you can see how much Alabama has been shaped by its proximity to this body of water through things like bayous (the word “bayou” comes from a Choctaw Indian word meaning “small stream”) and other features like salt marshes that have developed over time as part of an estuary system around Mobile Bay (the nation’s second-largest estuary). This proximity also makes Alabama susceptible to flooding from tropical storms like Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Ivan in 2004.