Hundreds of people near the Florida-Alabama border were being rescued from floodwaters brought on by Sally on Wednesday and authorities fear many more could be in danger in coming days.
"We had 30 inches of rain in Pensacola—30-plus inches of rain—which is four months of rain in four hours," Ginny Cranor, chief of the Pensacola Fire Department, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday.
Sally has weakened since making landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on Wednesday morning but its devastating toll was visible across Southern states by nightfall.
By Wednesday night, it was a tropical depression, according to the National Hurricane Center. Located about 10 miles northwest of Troy, Alabama, it had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph and was moving northeast at 9 mph. While all watches and warnings have been discontinued, Sally is still causing torrential rain over eastern Alabama and western Georgia.
Pensacola and other parts of Florida and Alabama were submerged by flooding, rivers were approaching dangerous levels and numerous counties were under curfews to keep residents safe.
"We are still in an evaluation and lifesaving recovery mission, and we need to be able to do that job," said Robert Bender, commissioner in Escambia County, Florida.
Sally unleashed up to 30 inches of rain from the Florida Panhandle to Mobile Bay, Alabama, leading to "historic and catastrophic flooding" there and threatening even more communities as it moves north, the National Hurricane Center said.
In Escambia County, which includes Pensacola, at least 377 people have been rescued from flooded neighborhoods, Jason Rogers, the county's public safety director, told reporters in a news briefing.
"It's going to be a long time, folks ... to come out of this thing," Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said earlier Wednesday, warning there could be thousands of evacuations.
Doris Stiers ventured outside her Gulf Shores, Alabama, beach home to asses Sally's damage Wednesday and found her community changed.
Here's Where Sally Is Going Next
Sally made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane near Gulf Shores around 4:45 a.m. CT with sustained winds of 105 mph.The slow pace of the storm—now around 7 mph—was unleashing a damaging deluge across Alabama and the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday evening. Some areas already have collected more than 24 inches of rain and could receive up to 35 inches by the storm's end.
A Section of Pensacola's Three Mile Bridge Is Missing
A section of the newly built Pensacola Bay Bridge that connects to the city of Gulf Breeze is missing thanks to the storm, authorities said.A barge had slammed a portion of the structure, known to locals as the Three Mile Bridge, on Tuesday and caused the damage, Brad Baker, Santa Rosa County's public safety director, said Wednesday in a Facebook video.
"Anybody who uses the Three Mile Bridge, just know it's going to be a while before you get to use that again," Baker said.
A Flood Emergency and a Half Million With No Power
Floodwaters have turned streets into rivers in Pensacola. and at least eight rivers in southwest Alabama and the western area of the Florida Panhandle are expected to reach major flood stages late Wednesday, the National Weather Service office in Mobile tweeted.Rainfall totals of 10 to 35 inches are possible from Mobile Bay to Tallahassee, Florida, forecasters say.
Sally came ashore 16 years to the day that a Category 3 Hurricane Ivan struck roughly the same areas.
Central Alabama and central Georgia could eventually see 4 to 12 inches of rain, with significant flash flooding possible. Parts of the Carolinas could receive 4 to 9 inches of rain by later in the week.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered for much of the coast and low-lying areas from Mississippi to Florida, and shelters opened to accommodate evacuees.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said "pretty much any body of water in Northwest Florida" could see a rise in levels over the next few days because of Sally.
Damage and Flooding in Alabama
In Alabama, the floor and walls on the 16th floor of a hotel on the northern rim of Mobile Bay groaned as Sally made its way ashore.The building shook as if in the throes of an extended, low-grade earthquake, and sturdy windows seemed poised to pop out, a CNN team there said.
In Orange Beach, Alabama, water flowed at least a foot deep along the exterior walls of tourist shops, video taken from a moving boat by the United Cajun Navy before sunrise Wednesday shows.
At the shore, a boat sat on its side not far from an upended refrigerator, according to the footage, posted to Facebook.
Daylight revealed another loose boat had come to rest against an Orange Beach condominium building, a photo from resident Rich Florczyk showed. Flooded streets were littered with downed tree limbs and other debris.
On Dauphin Island, south of Mobile, "we've got trees down all over the place ... (and) electricity has been shut off to the entire island," Mayor Jeff Collier said Wednesday morning.
As wind and rain whipped even before midnight, enormous trees already had been felled west of Mobile.
Similar scenes unfolded around the same time—still about six hours before Sally came ashore—in midtown Mobile and across Mobile Bay in Fairhope, Alabama.