On Friday, July 18, 1997, hurricane warnings were hoisted along the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Alabama as Hurricane Danny headed toward shore. The Category 1 hurricane was brushing southeastern Louisiana where tropical storm force winds and high tides caused severe erosion. Grand Isle, Louisiana recorded a wind gust to 95 mph shortly before midnight. Winds of up to 100 mph and torrential rains flattened power lines, damaged or sunk boats and left flooding in the storm’s wake.

The following day, Hurricane Danny lashed the Alabama Gulf Coast all day long with winds of 80 mph as the storm stalled over the southern end of Mobile Bay. The storm dumped thirty inches of rain on Coastal Mobile and Baldwin Counties. 36.71 inches of rain fell during the storm at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (25.98 inches of which fell in just seven hours). The incredible rainfall caused extensive flooding.

Two people were killed in preparations for the storm. A four story condominium complex which was under construction in Gulf Shores was leveled. At the Marriott Grand Hotel in Point Clear, a couple was married despite the hurricane, even though power was out and a bridesmaid couldn’t get to the hotel.
Danny was the earliest fifth named storm of any North Atlantic hurricane season, at least until 2005. The storm formed from a trough that drifted over the Gulf of Mexico on July 13th. The system became a tropical depression on July 16th as it was south of the Louisiana coast. It was named Danny on the 17th and gradually grew in intensity until it became Hurricane Danny on the 18th.

By the 20th, the storm weakened into a tropical depression, but still caused flooding and tornadoes in the Carolinas. It would re-intensify into a tropical storm on the 24th while still inland over North Carolina. It emerged over the Atlantic, and moved to near Nantucket before stalling and merging with a front.