Sally much more than ‘rain nuisance’
PENSACOLA, Fla. – More than 500,000 homes and businesses remained without power across the Deep South on Thursday as residents picked through sodden destruction wrought by Hurricane Sally, while others fled new emergencies caused by overflowing rivers and streams.
Rescuers along the Gulf Coast used high-water vehicles Thursday to reach people cut off by flooding. The region braced for a delayed, second round of floods in coming days.
The storm, though no longer at hurricane status, was far from finished. A day after leaving a swath of coastal Alabama and Florida in ruin, Sally pounded Georgia and the Carolinas with torrential rain. A foot or more was possible, and up to 8 inches in parts of Virginia, before the storm reaches the Atlantic.
Rising floodwaters could push eight waterways in Florida and Alabama to record-high levels in coming days.
“We are not quite out of the woods yet,” Eric Gilmore, emergency management chief for Escambia County, which includes Pensacola, said Thursday. “We still have flooding in two of our rivers ... heed this warning.”
The storm crashed ashore early Wednesday as a Category 2 hurricane in Gulf Shores, Alabama, about 30 miles west of Pensacola. The 105 mph winds toppled trees and utility poles and tore the roofs off some homes. The slowmoving soaker pounded areas of Florida and Alabama with 2 feet of rain or more.
Thirty inches fell in Orange Beach, Alabama, and in isolated areas of Florida, the National Weather Service said.
“While it could be much worse, it’s been mighty bad,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said Thursday.
Gov. Ron Desantis warned that roads could be closed for days.
An official for an Alabama county just east of Mobile Bay said the county suffered “tremendous damage” from Hurricane Sally.
Jenni Guerry, deputy director of emergency management for Baldwin County, said Thursday at a news briefing that search crews were trying to make sure people are accounted for and taking them to safety when needed.
Trees and power lines are down throughout the county, one of Alabama’s largest with about 225,000 people. In a social media post, the county said there are many traffic lights still out, which has led to “collisions and a lot of near misses.”
Homeowners and businesses along the soggy Gulf Coast have begun cleaning up, even as the region braces for more flooding from rivers and creeks swollen by the storm’s rain.
In parts of Georgia, up to a foot of rain was forecast. Flash flooding and minor to moderate river flooding is likely, the National Weather Service warned. The metro Atlanta area saw heavy rains Thursday, some trees were down and power outages affected thousands.
Parts of South Carolina could see up to 10 inches of rain, and parts of North Carolina and Virginia could see up to 8 inches, the weather service said.
Contributing: Daniella Medina, Madison Arnold and Colin Warrenhicks, Pensacola News Journal; Marty Roney, Kirsten Fiscus, Montgomery Advertiser; The Associated Press