ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – It may have been a hectic weekend and start to the week in dealing with tropical occurrence Isaac – and it’s not completely over yet – but officials say the weekend has the potential to be fabulous.

“We don’t feel like this will be a particularly significant property-damaging event,” Gulf Shores spokesman Grant Brown said. “So hopefully with a day or two of cleanup and we get the surf to lie down a little bit we can still have a decent Labor Day weekend.”

Labor Day is the traditional end of summer celebration as most people take one last long weekend to enjoy the beach. Orange Beach is encouraging visitors to come on down.

“We have done a number of interviews this morning trying to let folks know and spread the word from Huntsville, AP, USAToday, that we are open for business starting tomorrow, hopefully,” Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon said at a noon town hall meeting. “I would think that everyone would be open by Thursday.”

After a storm blows through, Kennon said, the weather behind can be quite pleasant.

“We’re expecting one of the prettiest weekends of the year because generally following a storm the weather’s perfect,” Kennon said. “We want all the folks from New Orleans, Louisiana and Mississippi to come this way and spend some time with us.

“We are closing no roads whatsoever. All the accommodations have been notified they can tell their guests to come on, they will have a place to stay, they can get in and out.”

Kennon said with the relaxing of conditions from a hurricane warning to a tropical storm warning for Alabama caused Gov. Robert Bentley to lift the mandatory evacuation order for almost all of Pleasure Island.

“He’s left it up to local folks to make the decisions on what we need to do and that’s very much appreciated,” Kennon said. “Even though he made that evacuation order, he allowed us to do with it what we will on the coast. I want to give him credit  because you’re going to get beat up a good bit from the other side about too early of an evacuation order.”

Gulf Shores has more low-lying areas than Orange Beach and some road restrictions are still in place. Brown expects them to be gone by Thursday.

“Today we’re just doing the property owner and resident access down toward the beach,” Brown said. “We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, if we can just blow it open and let everybody that wants to be able to come back. Until that decision is made, until those blockades come down, we can’t receive visitors, obviously.”

The worst of the weather is expected this afternoon and tonight, but it’s not expected to be severe.

“We do not expect anything out of the ordinary other than a windy day with lots of rain and more of it this evening and tonight,” Kennon said. “The city will be fielding phone calls until 5 o’clock and tomorrow doing business just like we normally would, however nonessential services and nonessential personnel will go home today at 12 and return tomorrow at 12.”