New Orleans
Hurricane Sally churned Tuesday towards the US Gulf Coast, threatening deadly flash flooding in Alabama and Mississippi, even as it weakened to a Category 1 storm.
The National Hurricane Center said the storm in the Gulf of Mexico was packing maximum sustained winds of around 85 miles (140 kilometers) per hour.
“Historic flooding is possible from Sally with extreme life-threatening flash flooding likely through Wednesday,” the Miami-based center warned.
At 1200 GMT, Sally was located 105 miles (170 kilometers) southeast of Biloxi, Mississippi, and heading in a northwesterly direction at two mile per hour.
It was expected to make landfall late Tuesday or early Wednesday. Sally is one of five tropical cyclones currently active in the Atlantic Ocean — a phenomenon only recorded once before, in September 1971, according to meteorologists.
The others are Hurricane Paulette, tropical storms Teddy and Vicky and tropical depression Rene.
US President Donald Trump, speaking on “Fox & Friends,” compared Sally to Hurricane Laura, which battered Texas and Louisiana, as well as the Caribbean, just a few weeks ago.
“This one is smaller but it’s a little bit more direct, but we have it under control,” he said. “We have it under watch very strongly.” Earlier, he tweeted that “My team and I are closely monitoring extremely dangerous Hurricane Sally. “We are fully engaged with State & Local Leaders to assist the great people of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi,” he wrote, urging people in the storm’s path to “listen to State and Local Leaders.—AFP
