PENSACOLA (FLORIDA) – In the Alabama-Florida coast, hurricane Sally left a trail of destruction in the form of uprooted trees, flooded streets and snapped power lines on Wednesday. The US National Hurricane Center has called it the “historic and catastrophic” flooding in that region.
The hurricane made landfall early on Wednesday near Gulf Shores, Alabama, as a Category 2 storm on the five-notch Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity. It was downgraded to a tropical storm in the afternoon as maximum sustained winds dropped to 70 miles per hour (113 kph).
One person died in Alabama.
“We had a body wash up, we believe it was hurricane-related, but we have no definitive proof of that right now,” said Trent Johnson, a police officer in Orange Beach, Alabama.
Over the past 24 hours, some parts of the Gulf Coast have been flooded with more than 18 inches (46 cm) of rain and the precipitation is expected to go up, said the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Communities along the coast in Pensacola, Florida, experienced flooding of up to 5 feet (1.5 m) and damaged roads and bridges left people stranded. More than 500,000 homes and businesses are without power in the area.