Live updates: MS Coast sees few impacts as Sally moved east. ‘We dodged the bullet.’
3:20 p.m.
Gov. Tate Reeves said that power outages caused by Hurricane Sally in South Mississippi are gradually being restored.
“We saw a significant amount out of power outages in our state earlier today,” Reeves said. “That’s thanks to the tremendous effort of our power crew. We had linemen out working even during the storm. We have those numbers below 1,600 dwellings without power.”
1:30 p.m.
Reports of damage from Hurricane Sally are flooding social media with pictures of roofs torn off condos at Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, high winds damaging Souvenir City at Gulf Shores, flooding in downtown Pensacola and a section of Pensacola’s new Three Mile Bridge missing.
A photo from a Florida Department of Transportation shows the missing span that looks like the Popp’s Ferry Bridge in Biloxi after a barge crashed into it in 2009.
Waste Management announced it will discontinue recycling service in Jackson County due to damages to their recycling facility near Pensacola, Florida. It is the only recycling facility in the region, the company said, and it will be closed until further notice. Garbage service will continue as scheduled.
12:15 p.m.
Hancock County has no reported flooding or structural damage and all roads closed due to high water from Hurricane Sally are reopened, said Brian Adam, the county’s emergency manager.
The storm shelter in Kiln is closed and emergency operations have returned to normal hours.
10:30 a.m.
All watches and warnings for South Mississippi have been canceled as Hurricane Sally is about 100 miles east of Gulfport and picking up a little speed at 5 mph.
Popp’s Ferry Bridge in Biloxi is closed for the next 15-20 minutes as crews reinstall traffic arms, and the bridges will be opening frequently as boats return from safe harbor to the harbors along the coastline.
Shelters are closing and roads that were flooded Tuesday are open Wednesday.
Casinos will reopen on the Coast at 1 p.m.
As South Mississippi dodged Hurricane Laura that went to the west and Hurricane Sally to the east, two more systems, one in the Atlantic and one in the Gulf, need to be watched in the coming days.
Meanwhile, the forecast calls for temperatures around 80 degrees beginning Saturday and extending into next week in South Mississippi.
9:20 a.m.
As the center of Sally moves slowly over the Alabama-Florida border, South Mississippi is returning to normal.
Harrison County has no reported flooding or reports of structural damage.
The county is closing the three shelters that were opened, and Coast Transit Authority is on hand to provide rides to those who need them, county public information officer Jeff Clark said Wednesday morning.
“We are lucky that we avoided the storm that made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane that is bringing catastrophic rain to the Pensacola area.” he said. “We’ve got one more name on the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane list — Wilfred — and we are only halfway through the hurricane season. Then, we move to the Greek alphabet.
”Emergency managers are now keeping a close eye on other activity in the tropics,” he said. Emergency officials are watching the tropical disturbance now off the Coast of Mexico and it has a medium chance of formation as a tropical depression in the next 48 hours.
“We are keeping a close eye on that o ane,” Clark said, and another system has a strong chance of forming over the next five days in the Atlantic.
8:40 a.m.
“We dodged the bullet,” said Earl Etheridge, director of emergency services in Jackson County.
“We had a lot of trees that fell down on the east side of the county, but they’ve all been picked up and cleared,” he said.
“We would get showers here and there but really we didn’t have much rain to speak of,” he said. The 9,000 power outages mostly were on the east side of county — Pascagoula, Moss Point, around Escatawpa, Orange Grove, Wade, Hurley and the Helena communities.
“There have been no reports of any structural damages in Jackson County,” he said.
There are no longer any road closures in Jackson County, Etheridge said, and the emergency operations center is returning to normal operations by noon.
Coast Transit Authority also will resume bus service at noon Wednesday.
7:50 a.m.
Officials in Jackson County report no flooding in Pascagoula even In low-lying areas. There’s no damage to the Ocean Springs Front Beach and no more flooding around the triangle on the Beach at Washington Avenue.
Mississippi Department of Transportation reports the flooding also has subsided on U.S. 90 in Biloxi at Miramar Avenue.
Crews are out restoring power and there now are 7,300 homes with no power compared to 11,500 at 6:30 a.m.
7:30 a.m.
Now that Sally is over land, the National Hurricane Center says weakening is expected today and tonight, along with more heavy rain and storm surge.
“Through this afternoon, Sally will produce additional rainfall totals of 8 to 12 inches with localized higher amounts possible along and just inland of the central Gulf Coast from west of Tallahassee, Florida to Mobile Bay,” according to the 7 a.m. update.
Isolated rainfall amounts of 35 inches is expected.
Just as people in South Mississippi remember the dates of Hurricane Katrina and Camille, Pensacola remembers the date or Hurricane Ivan, which also hit the city on Aug. 16. That was 16 years ago in 2004.
7 a.m.
Sustained winds of 81 mph and a gust to 99 mph are reported at Dauphin Island, Alabama, according to the National Hurricane Center. Pensacola has seen 24 inches of rain already from Hurricane Sally.
6:30 a.m.
Nearly 11,500 customers of Singing River Electric and Mississippi Power were without power, mostly along the coast from Ocean Springs to Pascagoula, and also north to Vancleave and Lucedale.
5:30 a.m.
Hurricane Sally made landfall near the Alabama-Florida border near Gulf Shores, Alabama, at 4:45 a.m. Wednesday as a strong Category 2 storm.
“Historic and catastrophic flooding is unfolding along and just inland of the coast from west of Tallahassee, Florida, to Mobile Bay, Alabama,” according to the National Hurricane Center.
Life-threatening storm surge is occurring along the Alabama and Florida coastlines, including Pensacola, and into the Mobile Bay and Pensacola Bay.
Maximum sustained winds at landfall are 105 mph and the pressure has dropped to 965 mb.
Sally continues a slow crawl of 3 mph, drenching the area with well over 20 inches of rain.
The Coast counties are still under a tropical storm warning until 12:30 p.m. Wednesday and is experiencing winds of 30-40 mph, with gusts up to 55 mph.
Tornadoes are not expected in Mississippi, but showers and thunderstorms may still occur over Jackson County., according to the latest NHC advisory.
Flash flood watches and coastal flooding watches are in effect for South Mississippi.
Flooding continues along the beaches in South Mississippi ahead of high tide, but the area was spared the 2 feet of rain and heavy storm surge that was predicted earlier this week.
On Sunday, Sally was forecast to come ashore at the Mississippi-Louisiana border. By Monday the track had moved east, and Gov. Tate Reeves said the storm was targeting Biloxi and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. On Tuesday the forecast moved east, and Florida and Alabama got the worst of the storm.
High tide on the Coast comes around 11 a.m., and Rupert Lacy, emergency management director in Harrison County, said Tuesday the Coast has had five crescent moon high tide cycles, without the water receding.
Sally is forecast to bring more heavy rain to those areas as it continues to move slowly north and east Wednesday, and bring heavy rain to Georgia and the Carolinas on Thursday and Friday.
By the weekend, temperatures in the low 80s are forecast for South Mississippi as residents continue to watch the tropics for additional storms.
The Sun Herald will update this article throughout the day.
This story was originally published September 16, 2020 at 6:10 AM.
