New Alabama-Florida storm evacuation route opening

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - Officials have high expectations for a long-awaited hurricane evacuation route that links the Florida Panhandle with Interstate 65 in Alabama through Flomaton.

“This is going to help turn Flomaton around,“ Flomaton Mayor Dewey Bondurant Jr. predicted Tuesday.

He described the border town as “dying.“ Census reports show that Flomaton’s population has declined from 1,811 in 1990 to 1,537 last year as some residents have moved away for jobs, education and other reasons.

Bondurant will join state and local officials at a ceremony Wednesday morning opening the Alabama 113 four-lane connection. U.S. 29 is already four lanes from Pensacola, Fla., to Flomaton.

Escambia County, Fla., provided $4 million toward the cost of four-laning the stretch of Alabama 113 from Flomaton northward to I-65. Bondurant said the city of Flomaton provided $500,000 and another $500,000 came from Escambia County, Ala. Alabama used federal funds for its $23 million share.

Escambia County (Ala.) Commission Chairman David Stokes said he hopes the Alabama-Florida partnership on expanding evacuation routes will continue with at least two more four-laning projects into the Panhandle from his county.

“The emergency relief aspect of this is immeasurable,“ Stokes said.

During hurricanes, coastal evacuees bound for I-65 have crowded onto south Alabama roads, including the 14-mile two-lane through Flomaton.

Christopher Rowland, who sells tires at the busy U.S. 31 intersection in Flomaton, recalled the traffic nightmares during evacuations for Hurricanes Opal in 1995 and Ivan in 2004.

He said he hopes the expanded highway will entice new businesses to Flomaton.

“Even something simple as a gym would help,“ the 24-year-old said.

Shoe shop owner Wayne Mixon doesn’t expect the expanded highway will help existing businesses.

“It will push people through faster,“ he said by phone.

It also cuts through farmland that Mixon doesn’t expect will go commercial.

“All the land that borders it is owned by a couple of prominent families and money won’t buy it,“ he said.

Alabama and Florida officials agreed in 1967 to four-lane the road on both sides of the state line to provide a hurricane evacuation route, Bondurant said. Florida completed its part, but Alabama stopped after acquiring the right of way for the new lanes in the 1970s.

The project sparked new interest after the Ivan evacuation.

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Associated Press writer Phillip Rawls in Montgomery contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.