Hurricane Sally: devastating floods expected as heavy rains move north
Rivers swollen by Hurricane Sally’s rains threatened more misery for parts of the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama on Thursday, even as the storm’s remnants were forecast to dump up to a foot of rain and spread the threat of devastating flooding to Georgia and the Carolinas.
Gulf coast residents began to pick up the pieces at daybreak from the drenching and howling storm that the day before killed at least one and caused one other to be reported missing in Alabama.
A church steeple was ripped off the El-Bethel Primitive Baptist church in Mobile, Alabama, by the high winds.
An official just east of Mobile Bay, Alabama, said the county has sustained “tremendous damage”.
Jenni Guerry, deputy director of emergency management for Baldwin county, said at a Thursday news briefing that search crews have been trying to make sure people are accounted for.
Trees and power lines are down throughout the county, one of Alabama’s largest, with about 225,000 people. The county said there are also many traffic lights still out and that 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 a delayed, second round of flooding in the coming days.
Homes sat in the rain on Wednesday with their roofs and sometimes even walls peeled off by the 105mph winds that swept ashore early that morning as the tempest made landfall at Gulf Shores, Alabama, as a category two hurricane.
On Thursday morning, the rain had stopped but more than 530,000 were still without power in the region, after the electricity went out for many on Tuesday night.
Rescuers along the Gulf coast were using high-water vehicles to reach people cut off by flooding. In Florida’s Escambia county, crews carried out at least 400 rescues in the by such means as high-water vehicles, boats and jet skis, authorities said.
The Florida national guard said it had deployed about 500 soldiers and airmen to help local authorities evacuate 113 people, though it did not say when and where the rescues took place.
Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, warned residents and visitors in flooded areas that they would need to remain vigilant as water from the hurricane subsides, because heavy rains to the north were expected to cause flooding in panhandle rivers in coming days.
“So this is kind of the initial salvo, but there is going to be more that you’re going to have to contend with,” DeSantis said.
At least one death was blamed on the hurricane. Mayor Tony Kennon said one person died in the popular vacation spot Orange Beach, Alabama, and another was missing as a result of the storm. He said he couldn’t immediately release details.
In Florida, more than 2ft of rain fell near Naval Air Station Pensacola, and nearly 3ft of water covered streets in downtown Pensacola, the National Weather Service reported.
A storm surge of 5.5ft with waves on top drove entire marinas full of boats into heaps of wreckage and sunken craft, and turned some streets into rivers.
Water damages could be even worse than originally expected – potentially up to $8bn – due to the havoc caused by flooding.
Hurricanes are normally associated with massive wind gusts, but damage caused by flooding rains over a big region is worse, especially with a storm system that moved so slowly, gathering rain as it churned across the Gulf of Mexico and dumping it while lingering over land.
The storm was a nerve-racking experience for University of West Florida student Brooke Shelter.
She was wide awake Wednesday morning as strong winds and rainfall battered her home, marking her first experience with a hurricane. “It is so sad seeing how flooded downtown is.”
Sally weakened to a tropical depression late Wednesday and picked up speed. By early Thursday, it was producing torrential rains over eastern Alabama and western and central Georgia. Forecasters say tornadoes are possible Thursday across southern Georgia and northern Florida. The National Hurricane Center said the system was moving through south-east Alabama, would cross over central Georgia and reach South Carolina on Thursday night. There are flood warnings in effect as far north as Richmond, Virginia, before the storm is expected to swirl out to sea after Friday.
County sheriffs in Georgia began reporting numerous trees down and closures of flooded highways and streets on Thursday afternoon.
In Orange Beach, Mayor Kennon said the damage was worse than that from Hurricane Ivan, which hit 16 years to the day earlier.
Many faced extended time without power. “We don’t want to sugar coat this, we’re in it for the long haul,” one utility posted on social media.
At least eight waterways in south Alabama and the Florida Panhandle were expected to hit major flood stage by Thursday.
Like the wildfires raging on the west coast, the onslaught of hurricanes has focused attention on climate change, which scientists say is causing slower, rainier, more powerful and more destructive storms.