Hurricane Sally, a plodding storm with winds of 137km/h (85mph), crept towards the northern Gulf Coast early Tuesday as forecasters warned of potentially deadly storm surges and flash floods with up to 0.61 metres (two feet) of rain and the possibility of tornadoes.
NEWS /UNITED STATES
Hurricane Sally slowly moves closer to US Gulf Coast
Forecasters stressed ‘significant’ uncertainty as to where the storm’s eye would make landfall.
2 hours ago
Hurricane Sally, a plodding storm with winds of 137km/h (85mph), crept towards the northern Gulf Coast early Tuesday as forecasters warned of potentially deadly storm surges and flash floods with up to 0.61 metres (two feet) of rain and the possibility of tornadoes.
Forecasters stressed “significant” uncertainty as to where the storm’s eye would make landfall. But they kept nudging the predicted track eastward, easing fears in New Orleans, which was once in Sally’s crosshair.
By early Tuesday, hurricane warnings stretched from the mouth of the Pearl River at the Louisiana-Mississippi line to Navarre, Florida, and forecasters said Sally should reach land near the Alabama-Mississippi state line by late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
Stacy Stewart, a senior specialist with the National Hurricane Center, said Tuesday that people should continue to take the storm seriously since “devastating” rainfall is expected in large areas. People could drown in the flooding, he said.
“This is going to be historic flooding along with the historic rainfall,” Stewart said. “If people live near rivers, small streams and creeks, they need to evacuate and go somewhere else.”