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Alabama Power says hurricane "worst ever."

"Very simply put, it's bad," spokeswoman Carrie Kurlander said. "Damage-wise, it's the biggest storm on record for us."

Though Hurricane Ivan knocked out power to more homes, 825,000 of them, Katrina was worse for knocking down poles and knocking out some high-voltage transmission lines. Katrina left 636,891 Alabama Power customers statewide without electricity at the peak outage, the second highest number ever seen. The peak in Birmingham was 230,367 customers without power.

Alabama Governor says Dauphin Island hardest hit.

Gov. Bob Riley flew over the coastal and southwest Alabama areas hardest hit by Katrina, with federal disaster aid in the pipeline. Riley said Dauphin Island was the worst-hit area to his eye.

"Houses have been absolutely demolished," he said. "A lot of the beach is gone."