PENSACOLA — Rivers swollen by Hurricane Sally’s rains threatened more misery for parts of the Florida Panhandle and south Alabama on Thursday, even as the storm’s remnants were forecast to dump up to a foot of rain and spread the threat of flooding to Georgia and the Carolinas.
Sally, now downgraded to a tropical depression, is 50 miles southeast of Montgomery, Alabama and moving at 12 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 30 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center’s 5 a.m. update, the final update the NHC will give on the system.
Sally rapidly intensified into a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph as it made landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama at around 6 a.m. Wednesday. The storm landed at a sluggish speed of 2 mph, giving it an extended period of time to besiege the Gulf Coast with 7-foot storm surge and more than 2 feet of rainfall. Sally’s slow tour through Alabama and the west Florida Panhandle brought destruction of property, downed power lines and flooded roadways.
A section of the Three Mile Bridge in Pensacola went missing during the storm Wednesday after Sally pushed a construction barge into a support beam, according to Santa Rosa County Emergency Management. The storm also ripped away a large section of a fishing pier at Alabama’s Gulf State Park on the very day a ribbon-cutting had been scheduled following a $2.4 million renovation.
As the storm continues to move from Alabama and into Georgia, it leaves behind over 500,000 people in the dark with customers from Alabama, Georgia and Florida without power, as of 7:30 a.m. according to PowerOutage.US.
Many faced extended time without power. “We don’t want to sugar coat this; we’re in it for the long haul,” one utility posted on social media.
Sally is forecast to weaken further and degenerate into a post tropical cyclone/remnant low early Friday while encountering vertical wind shear as it passes over west-central Georgia, the NHC said.
Flooding in central Georgia forced Robins Air Force Base south of Macon to close one of its entrances and delay the start of the workday for some employees. Elsewhere in Georgia, sheriffs reported numerous trees down and some highways and streets closed because of high water.
Coastal residents, meanwhile, looked to begin the recovery from a storm that turned streets into rivers, ripped roofs off buildings, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands and killed at least one person.
Gov. Ron DeSantis warned people to stay clear of the rising waters left as Hurricane Sally hit the U.S. Gulf Coast as a Category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds with storm surge and rainfall causing severe flooding in Florida.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned residents and visitors in flooded areas that they would need to remain vigilant as water from the hurricane subsides, because heavy rains to the north were expected to cause flooding in Panhandle rivers in coming days.
“So this is kind of the initial salvo, but there is going to be more that you’re going to have to contend with,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis was scheduled to give an update after taking an aerial tour of damage Thursday afternoon. On Wednesday he said 500 members of the Florida National Guard had been deployed to assist in evacuations amid the rising floodwaters. The National Guard said in a release they had helped evacuate 113 Florida residents as of Thursday afternoon.
At least one death was blamed on the hurricane. Orange Beach, Alabama, Mayor Tony Kennon told The Associated Press one person in the popular vacation spot died and another was missing as a result of the storm. He said he couldn’t immediately release details.
Sally moved slowly, exacerbating the heavy rains' effects. More than 2 feet fell near Naval Air Station Pensacola, and nearly 3 feet of water covered streets in downtown Pensacola, the National Weather Service reported.
Some Pensacola streets looked like rivers with whitecaps at times. The waters swamped parked cars before receding. At a downtown marina, at least 30 sailboats, fishing boats and cabin cruisers were clumped together Thursday in a mass of fiberglass hulls and broken docks. Some boats rested atop sunken ones.
The hurricane also drove two large ferry boats into a concrete sea wall and left them grounded. Both the Turtle Runner and the Pelican Perch were purchased with BP oil spill money and used for trips between the city and the beach.
A replica of Christopher Columbus' ship the Nina was missing from where it was docked at the Pensacola waterfront, police said. The ship was later seen run aground in downtown Pensacola, Pensacola News Journal reported.
The storm was a nerve-racking experience for University of West Florida student Brooke Shelter. She was wide awake Wednesday morning as strong winds and rainfall battered her home, marking her first experience with a hurricane. “The damage around my home is pretty minor, for which I am thankful for,” Shelter said. “However, it is so sad seeing how flooded downtown is.”
Sally weakened to a tropical depression late Wednesday and picked up speed. By early Thursday, it was producing torrential rains over eastern Alabama and western and central Georgia. Forecasters say tornadoes are possible Thursday across southern Georgia and northern Florida.
The National Hurricane Center said the system was moving through southeast Alabama, would cross over central Georgia and reach South Carolina on Thursday night. Flash flooding and river flooding was possible in each state. Forecasts say up to 1 foot of rain is possible in some spots.
In Orange Beach, Kennon said the damage was worse than that from Hurricane Ivan, which hit 16 years to the day earlier. In a Facebook briefing, Kennon said distribution points would be established Thursday for water, ice and tarps.
“It was an unbelievably freaky right turn of a storm that none of us ever expected,” Kennon said of Sally, which once appeared to have New Orleans in its sights.
At least eight waterways in south Alabama and the Florida Panhandle were expected to hit major flood stage by Thursday. Some of the crests could break records, submerge bridges and flood some homes, the National Weather Service warned. Included in the warnings were the Styx and Fish rivers, Murder Creek and Big Escambia Creek. In Florida, major crests were expected on the Perdido, Blackwater, Shoal and Yellow rivers, forecasters said.
Brewton, Alabama, a city of about 5,200, can expect moderate to major flooding, said meteorologist Steve Miller of the National Weather Service office in Mobile. Silverhill, a town of about 1,200, was threatened by the Fish River, which had crested, and Seminole, an Alabama village on the Florida state line, by the still rising Styx River, Miller said.
The hurricane center was tracking two other Atlantic storms. Hurricane Teddy that strengthened to a Category 2 hurricane early Thursday with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph.
The storm was located early Thursday about 625 miles east-northeast of The Lesser Antilles. Teddy was moving toward the northwest at about 12 mph, the general motion it is expected to continue through the weekend.
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Additional strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days; Teddy could become a major hurricane Thursday night or Friday, the National Hurricane Center said.
Tropical Storm Vicky is expected to dissipate in the Atlantic in the coming days.
Orlando Sentinel staff writers Joe Mario Pedersen and Richard Tribou contributed to this report.