Hurricane Sally strengthened rapidly over the Gulf of Mexico on Monday. President Donald Trump has issued an emergency declaration for parts of Louisiana and Mississippi.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/The Sun Herald/L. Flippo
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Forecasts early Tuesday showed that Hurricane Sally could approach major hurricane strength as it nears the US Gulf Coast.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said that Sally has recently strengthened and developed an inner core and the warm waters of the Gulf favor additional strengthening in the next couple of hours.
As of now, the Category 2 hurricane is packing 100-mph (155-kph) winds but forecasters said that sustained winds of approximately 110 mph (177 kph) are expected right before landfall on Tuesday .
Residents from the low-lying areas of Louisiana and Mississippi have been ordered to evacuate ahead of the hurricane, while President Donald Trump has issued emergency declarations for Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, which helps coordinate disaster relief.
Ports, schools and businesses closed along the coast. The US Coast Guard restricted travel on the lower Mississippi River from New Orleans to the Gulf, and closed the ports of Pascagoula and Gulfport, Mississippi, and Mobile, Alabama.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey also declared an emergency, closing beaches and recommending evacuations from low-lying areas.
Projections for late Tuesday saw Sally slowly coming ashore near the Mississippi-Alabama state line. The mayor of the coastal city of Mobile in Alabama, Sandy Stimpson, warned residents to expect "a tremendous amount of flooding" as staff road-blocked vulnerable areas.
A maritime storm surge of more than one meter (over 3 feet) was forecast for Mobile by the National Hurricane Center.
Rainfalls of between 25 to 50 centimeters (10 to 20 inches) were forecast — extending inland northeast toward Atlanta, Georgia
Businesses rushed to shut on Monday before the arrival of Hurricane SallyImage: Reuters/J. Bachman
Energy companies, ports and refineries hurried to shut down ahead of Sally, the second storm to threaten the region in less than a month.
In southwestern Louisiana, residents are still clearing the debris from Hurricane Laura and thousands of homes are without power. Sally's path continues to be east of the area.
Governor John Bel Edwards said on Monday that additional resources have been sent by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, before Sally hits, to avoid taking assistance away from southwestern Louisiana.
Edwards advised over 12,000 Laura evacuees, who are currently in hotels in New Orleans, to "stay put" in their shelters.
Sally's biggest threat is that it will be a "rainmaker" across a wide swath of the Gulf Coast, with 3 to 4 inches in areas as far inland as Atlanta, said Jim Foerster, chief meteorologist at DTN, an energy, agriculture and weather data provider.
Sally is the 18th named storm in the Atlantic this year and will be the eighth tropical storm or hurricane to hit the United States, which is "very rare if not a record," according to Dan Kottlowski, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.
Increased storm activity have been noted as one of the potential effects of climate catastrophe.
Hurricane Laura batters US Gulf Coast
A Category 4 hurricane at landfall, Laura ripped through the US states of Texas and Louisiana, destroying buildings and killing more than a dozen people. Authorities say it was one of the strongest on record.
Image: Reuters/E. Nouvelage
Arrival
Laura made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in the early hours of Thursday morning in the small town of Cameron, Louisiana. It was packing winds of up to 241 kph (150 mph), making it one of the most powerful storms on record in the US. Hours later it was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane, but continued to lash the coast with heavy rain and winds.
Image: Imago Images/NASA
Lost life
The storm's first fatality was a 14-year-old girl who died when a tree fell on her house in the Louisiana city of Leesville. The state's governor, John Bel Edwards, appealed to residents to stay home, and warned the death toll could rise.
Image: Getty Images/J. Raedle
Widespread damage
The hurricane ripped right through Lake Charles, a Louisiana city of around 80,000 people. It gutted buildings, toppled street signs and flooded roads.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/G. Herbert
Shattered glass
The wind also blew out the windows of the city's 22-floor Capital One Tower, and brought down a controversial statue of a Confederate general that had stood outside the Lake Charles court house since 1915.
Image: Getty Images/J. Raedle
Roar of a jet engine
Lake Charles resident Chris Johnson surveys the damage at his home. He decided to stay put as the hurricane passed through. Brett Geymann, who lives just north of the city, said the hurricane sounded like the roar of a jet engine. "It looks like 1,000 tornadoes went through here. It's just destruction everywhere," he told The Associated Press. "There are houses that are totally gone."
Image: picture-alliance/AP/G. Herbert
Power outages
More than 700,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana and Texas were without power early Thursday, and local utilities in the storm's path warned those numbers would rise as Laura advanced inland. The hurricane's arrival also led to the closure of ports and forced oil rigs and refineries in the US Gulf to shut down production.
Image: Reuters/E. Nouvelage
Wall of water
The National Hurricane Center had predicted that Laura would bring an "unsurvivable storm surge and destructive waves," that could penetrate more than 60km inland. While the worst projections didn't appear to materialize, the NHC warned high water levels would continue to surge along the Gulf Coast for several hours as Laura moved north.
Hundreds of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate from parts of Texas and Louisiana. Many booked into hotels inland, or slept in their cars, with officials reluctant to open large shelters that could lead to the coronavirus spreading. Texas Governor Greg Abbott had warned that Laura's power was "unprecedented" and told citizens to "get out of harm's way."
Image: picture-alliance/AP/G. Herbert
Death and destruction in the tropics
Laura reached the US after causing devastating flooding and landslides in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, killing at least 23 people. It is the 12th named storm in the Atlantic so far this year, and the National Hurricane Center has predicted there may be as many as 25 before the storm season ends in November.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/E. St-Val
Confederate monument toppled
A controversial Confederate statue in Louisiana came down after Laura swept through. The South's Defenders Memorial Monument in Lake Charles, Louisiana was toppled by the hurricane on Thursday. Just two weeks ago, local authorities had voted to keep the Confederate monument after protesters asked for it to be removed.
Image: Reuters/E. Nouvelage
Over half of victims poisoned
At least 14 people in the US have been reported dead after Laura swept through Texas and Louisiana. Over half of the deaths were due to carbon monoxide poisoning caused by the misuse of power generators indoors. At least four other people were killed by falling trees, and one individual died after his boat sank in the storm.
