PERDIDO BEACH, Ala. — Approximately 50 Perdido Beach residents attended a town-hall meeting on Saturday, Sept. 28, at PB Volunteer Fire Department.

The purpose of the meeting was to help the town develop a resilience plan, explained Perdido Beach Mayor Patsy Parker, who challenged attendees to focus on the word, itself.

“What does it mean in reference to Perdido Beach?” she asked.

Parker cited storms as impacting the coastal town.

“Isaac, last year to me was a big threat,” she said, adding that storms have caused shorelines to recede as much as two feet. “Who knows where it will be in 20 years?”

The endeavor was funded by an anonymous grant the Institute for Sustainible Communities.

“We’ve been working in the Gulf Coast since after Katrina in 2005,” said Michael Crowley of the institute.

A major portion of the two-hour meeting was facilitated by Michael Shelton of Weeks Bay Reserve. He asked the audience for their ideas and concerns about having a resilient home and community. Among the answers were interest in having a town storm shelter, concern about beach erosion and effective communication throughout the town during an emergency.

Occasionally, the conversation strayed to political issues, such as bringing commerce to the town, but the meeting ended with Parker saying the town council would review notes from the event and incorporate the feedback into a resilience plan.