Nearly 400,000 homes without power in wake of Hurricane Sally

by Alexandra Kelley | Sept. 18, 2020 | Sep. 18, 2020

Story at a glance

Roughly 400,000 customers are without power across the Deep South as Sally brings heavy rains and flash flooding.
Hurricane Sally is another chapter in 2020’s volatile hurricane season.

Persistent heavy rainfall brought to the South by Hurricane Sally has left hundreds of thousands of residences and businesses without power.

USAToday reports that people living in affected communities across Alabama, Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas were all faced with torrential downpours.

Initially forecasted to hit Louisiana, the storm’s northward turn spared embattled Louisianans even more damage, but it now threatens to bring about 8 inches of rain to Virginia.

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And Southern states are not out of the woods with Sally leaving behind river flooding. Rescuers were forced to cut through high tides to get to stranded citizens.

Data from PowerOutage.us confirmed that as of Friday morning, roughly 190,000 Alabama residents were without power, in addition to almost 140,000 in Florida.

Although the storm is tracking North, Southern states must deal with the aftermath of surges and flooding.

“We are not quite out of the woods yet,” Eric Gilmore, emergency management chief for Escambia County in Florida, said on Thursday. “We still have flooding in two of our rivers … so the residents along those rivers, heed this warning.”

Coastal communities along Alabama saw 105-mph winds when Sally made landfall early Wednesday, knocking down trees and telephone poles while inflicting damage on surrounding properties.

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Florida and Alabama both got hit with more than 2 feet of rain in addition to flash flooding.

The flooding has been so bad that major roadways stand to be shut down. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) told reporters that portions of I-10 in North Florida could be closed for several days.

“There’s going to be more flooding,” DeSantis said. “It’s not over yet.”

Earlier in the summer, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasted an especially active hurricane season for the end of 2020.

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