[ad_1]
Hurricane “Sally” wreaked havoc in the southern United States. In Pensacola, Florida, seawater flooded the streets of downtown and, at times, 500,000 homes and businesses in the region were without power. The flooding on the coast of the states of Alabama and Florida would have “historic and catastrophic proportions”, as announced by the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Experts estimated damages of at least two to three billion dollars.
Among other things, the Pensacola Bay Bridge, also known as the “Three Mile Bridge,” which opened in February, was damaged. According to Escambia County, the storm pushed a barge-mounted construction crane against the bridge. The recordings circulated on the short message service Twitter showed that part of the bridge was missing.
The eye of the storm made landfall Wednesday morning (local time) with winds of up to 165 kilometers per hour near the city of Gulf Shores, Alabama, the NHC announced. That was a level two hurricane out of five.
However, “Sally” only moves at a speed of 7 km / h. The result was heavy rains because the water did not spread over larger areas. About two feet (61 centimeters) fell in parts of Pensacola, according to the National Weather Service. “It’s not common to measure rainfall in feet,” said meteorologist David Eversole. “It’s a nightmare,” Eversole said. Rain is generally measured in smaller units.
The storm moves to Alabama
Within hours of hitting the mainland, the storm weakened and has since been downgraded by the NHC to a tropical storm. However, warnings of “catastrophic and life-threatening floods” continued to be issued along the affected coastal area. Forecasters expect the storm to move northeast inland across Alabama.
The forecasts for “Sally” have changed over and over again in the last few days. Initially, the cyclone was said to hit the mainland in southeastern Louisiana near the Mississippi border at night. Just three weeks ago, Hurricane “Laura” hit Louisiana and wreaked havoc. The financial damage caused by “Laura” could only amount to as much as three billion dollars, the Reuters news agency quotes an insurance expert.
According to Reuters, Sally is the eighth hurricane-force tropical storm to hit the United States this year. Oil and gas production in the region also stopped or slowed due to the storm, according to Reuters.
