The whirling center of Hurricane Sally may be slowly making its way toward the northern Gulf Coast, but the storm’s heavy rains and wind have already caused widespread flooding in the area.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said as of midday Tuesday, Hurricane Sally is a Category 1 storm, packing maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, and is located about 115 miles south of Mobile, Ala., “inching” northwest at 2 mph.
Sally should reach land near the Alabama-Mississippi state line by late Tuesday or early Wednesday, bringing the threat of a storm surge of up to 7 feet along Alabama’s coast, including Mobile Bay.
“A saying the National Weather Service has is ‘hide from the wind, run from the water,’” National Weather Service Meteorologist John De Block said Tuesday during a news conference. “Now is the time to run from the water.”