Over a quarter-million customers are without power in the wake of Sally’s fury, as the storm moves agonizingly slow on its trek inland. Sally is the second hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast in less than three weeks – and is “every bit as bad as predicted,” according to the Pensacola News Journal,
“We anticipate the evacuations could literally be in the thousands,” David Morgan, sheriff of Florida’s Escambia County which includes Pensacola, said of rescuing people in flooded neighborhoods. Water rescues are also ongoing in Gulf Shores, Alabama, where homes flooded and trees toppled onto roofs, city spokesman Grant Brown said, according to CNN.
Photo from the Three Mile Bridge showing the missing section. pic.twitter.com/Ym3VRBhml5
— Santa Rosa County Emergency Management (@SRC_EM) September 16, 2020
A section of Pensacola’s Three-Mile Bridge that connects to the city of Gulf Breeze is missing, thanks to the storm, Morgan said. “It’s going to be a long time, folks, … to come out of this thing,” the sheriff said.
Dauphin island damage. Photo from Scott Carpenter. @NWSMobile pic.twitter.com/xojMIE4b3Z
— Thomas Geboy (@ThomasGeboyWX) September 16, 2020
Today, nearly three feet of water covers the streets of downtown Pensacaola after enduring hours of rain before and after Hurricane Sally made landfall early Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service, over 18 inches of rain had fallen by 1am this morning.
Flooding, power outages spread as Hurricane #Sally batters Alabama, Florida: pic.twitter.com/1FpDuFZrHj
— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) September 16, 2020
Before 2am, the police department noted road issues were “too numerous to list.” Escambia County authorities were undertaking water rescues in the Bristol Park area as of 9:15am.
“It’s just a nightmare,” says David Eversole, a National Weather Service forecaster in Mobile, Ala., which has also been hit hard. “It just keeps pounding and pounding and pounding the area with tropical rain and just powerful winds.”
3rd highest Storm Surge on RECORD here in Pensacola, FL. Still hours from high tide. What a mess! Not out of the woods yet. #Sally pic.twitter.com/gs79u4fp4Z
— Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) September 16, 2020
“Sally has a characteristic that isn’t often seen and that’s a slow forward speed, and that’s going to exacerbate the flooding,” said Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the hurricane center. He likened the storm’s plodding pace to that of Hurricane Harvey, which inundated Houston in 2017.
Meanwhile, far out in the Atlantic, Teddy became a hurricane Wednesday with winds of 100 mph (160 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center. Forecasters said it could reach Category 4 strength before closing in on Bermuda
Meanwhile in other tropical, non-#Sally news…#Teddy is now a hurricane, and Invests 98L, 99L, and 90L have been designated. pic.twitter.com/bLEcabnbWE
— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) September 16, 2020
