The National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicted that the effects of Hurricane Sally that made landfall on Wednesday in Gulf Shores, Alabama, with sustained maximum winds of nearly 105 miles per hour (165 km/h) could be felt through Friday.
4 PM CDT Wednesday, September 16 Key Messages for Tropical Storm #Sally. Even though Sally is moving farther inland, the threat of catastrophic flooding over portions of the southeastern U.S. is not over. Visit https://t.co/wVCrCI22A3 for more info. pic.twitter.com/11WfdI47jq
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 16, 2020
The trajectory projected by meteorologists anticipates that the center of the system will cross southeastern Alabama and the northwestern tip of Florida as a hurricane. On Thursday, however, it is expected to degrade to tropical storm over central Georgia to end up as a depression off the coast of the Carolina.
Sally, the first ground-touching hurricane in the southern state of Alabama since 2004, caused rains all night and knocked down trees; although, at the moment, no casualties are reported.
Sally continues to threaten Alabama and the so-called Sunshine State with catastrophic floods
The phenomenon has also caused power outages since before it hit ground. There are more than 217,000 affected customers in Florida, more than 275,000 in Alabama and about 9,700 in Mississippi.
The expectation is that rainfall will affect a large area of the southeastern United States with accumulations of up to 35 inches (889 millimeters) in some parts. While cyclonic tide can raise sea level to 7 feet (2.1 meters) in some areas.
Authorities do not rule out tornadoes in parts of northwest Florida, southern Alabama, and southwestern Georgia.
Social media videos this morning report flooding in various areas of Alabama such as the city of Orange Beach, and the town of Josephine in Baldwin County; and in Pensacola, Florida.
