Flora-Bama rocks as Gustav rolls toward landfall

PERDIDO KEY, Fla. - A man with a bra draped over his head danced into the night as waves churned up by Hurricane Gustav lashed the beach just yards away.

“I got my mojo working!“ the lead singer yelled from the stage of the beachfront bar. A dark-haired woman in a slinky dress spun around her dance partner; the music drowned out the howling wind and pounding rain.

Welcome to what passes for hurricane preparation at the Flora-Bama Lounge. ‘Twas the Sunday night before Gustav, and the place was rocking.

“They always have hurricane parties here,“ said employee Christie Hazard. “We’ll be here until they tell us to go home.“

Straddling the Alabama-Florida line on Perdido Key, the Flora-Bama is one of the best-known nightspots on the Gulf Coast’s famed Redneck Riviera. It opened as a biker bar about four decades ago but is now just as likely to be filled with doctors from Atlanta or frat boys from Ole Miss.

A mishmash of wooden buildings, plastic awnings, metal trailers, portable toilets and decking, the Flora-Bama was all but leveled by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The owners rebuilt, smaller but just as wild.

The bar took an almost direct hit from Ivan, but Gustav was aimed at the Louisiana coast more than 200 miles away. Tim Barvee was thankful as he leaned on a bar.

“I’d move into this place if I could,“ said Barvee, a volunteer diver who came to the coast in case authorities need help finding bodies after the storm. “If it gets blown away it only takes about $35 to rebuild it.“

Best known for its annual mullet-tossing contest, in which patrons throw fish, the Flora-Bama is a vacation tradition for thousands. A group of Gustav evacuees from Louisiana took in the beer-soaked scene as televised radar images of an angry hurricane glowed overhead.

Outside, a group of workers in yellow T-shirts fought to take down a big white awning before the wind kicked up again. Red Christmas lights and neon Budweiser signs cast an eerie glow in the rain.

Betsy Villanueva of Mandeville, La., went for a walk on the beach with her 8-year-old daughter before leaving the girl with relatives and heading to the Flora-Bama for a couple of hours.

“I told her tomorrow morning there will be all kinds of great shells out there after the water churns them up,“ she said. “I just hope our home is OK.“