USA TODAY International Edition
Historic flooding for Gulf Coast
Up to 30 inches of rain in some places along coast
Slow- moving Sally is dumping 10 to 20 inches of rain from the Florida Panhandle to southeast Mississippi, with isolated pockets of up to 30 inches into today. The Southeast is in for a drenching, too.
KILN, Miss. — Hurricane Sally crept closer to the Gulf Coast as the slowmoving storm was expected to bring heavy rains and “historic, life- threatening flooding” from southeastern Louisiana to Florida’s Panhandle, forecasters say.
Tropical- storm- force winds were spreading onshore along the Gulf Coast as of Tuesday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center said.
Sally, which ramped up to a Category 2 storm Monday but has since weakened to Category 1, was forecast to make landfall late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
“It’s going to be a huge rainmaker,” said Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist and meteorologist at Colorado State University. “It’s not going to be pretty.”
The storm’s dangers will be felt for miles with hurricane warnings in effect from east of Bay St. Louis, Louisiana, to Navarre, Florida.
“There is going to be historic flooding along with the historic rainfall,” Stacy Stewart, a senior specialist with the Hurricane Center, said. “If people live near rivers, small streams and creeks, they need to evacuate and go somewhere else.”
Sally, crawling at 2 mph by late afternoon Tuesday, was about 85 miles south of Mobile, Alabama, with winds whipping up to 80 mph. The Hurricane Center expected the storm would turn northeast as it comes ashore and continue to trudge across the Southeast later in the week.
Forecasters say Sally could bring 10 to 20 inches of rain from the Florida Panhandle to southeast Mississippi, with some isolated pockets of rain up to 30 inches. The rain along and just inland of the coast could bring “historic lifethreatening flash flooding” through Wednesday, the Hurricane Center said.
Up to seven feet of storm surge was also forecast across Alabama’s coastline from the Mississippi border to Florida border, forecasters said.
Isolated tornadoes could also occur
Wednesday across portions of the Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama, according to the Hurricane Center.
As it moves inland, Sally could also dump up to a foot of rain along pockets of southeastern Mississippi, southern and central Alabama, northern Georgia and the western Carolinas.
President Donald Trump issued emergency declarations for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Monday. “Be ready and listen to State and Local Leaders!” Trump tweeted.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, along the western part of the Panhandle, which already was being pummeled with rain from Sally’s outer bands.
Outside Pensacola, Quietwater Beach was completely underwater and county public works employees could be seen wading through knee- high water to secure trash cans and other items.
In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey also issued a state of an emergency closing Alabama’s beaches. The causeway to Dauphin Island, which was already flooding, was closed, and downtown Mobile was nearly deserted. Ivey warned residents living along the Gulf, especially south of
Interstate 10 or in low- lying areas, to evacuate if conditions permit.
Sally had threatened to batter New Orleans, where thousands of evacuees from Hurricane Laura were staying, but turned east over the past day. Laura devastated much of southwestern Louisiana after it roared ashore as a Category 4 storm, the first major hurricane of the 2020 season.
In Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina was on the minds of some residents preparing for Sally’s deluge.
Sabrina Young of Bay St. Louis was at the Kiln shelter Monday. It was the first of several to open around the region as evacuations of low- lying areas began.
“( The people will) be coming but it will be too late,” she said. “They’ll have the bare necessities. I did that with Katrina – the clothes on our backs and that was it. I don’t want to be in that situation again.”
Others appeared unsure what to do. Kenneth Belcher of Ocean Springs said he’s worried but has little choice other than to stay at his apartment.
“They say it’s going to be a bad one,” Belcher said. “They said 15, 20, 30 inches are going to fall. We got lucky with ( Hurricane) Laura, but this one looks like it’s coming to us.”