Hurricane Sally slows, gathering a deluge for the Gulf Coast
Waters from the Guld of Mexico poor onto a local road, Monday, Sept. 14, 2020, in Waveland, Miss. Hurricane Sally, one of a record-tying five storms churning simultaneously in the Atlantic, closed in on the Gulf Coast on Monday with rapidly strengthening winds of at least 100 mph (161 kph) and the potential for up to 2 feet (0.6 meters) of rain that could bring severe flooding. [AP/ Gerald Herbert]
Hurricane Sally is crawling toward the northern Gulf Coast at just 2 mph, a pace that’s enabling the storm to gather huge amounts of water to eventually dump on land.
Forecasters now expect landfall late Tuesday or early Wednesday near the Alabama-Mississippi state line.
Rain from the storm’s outer bands is already pummeling parts of the Florida Panhandle, where Gov. Ron DeSantis declared an emergency.
President Donald Trump has declared an emergency for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Sally has sustained winds of 85 mph but is expected to be nearly a Category 3 storm when it hits land.