Ron Brackett and Jan Wesner Childs
Flooding, power outages and bridge closures spread throughout coastal Alabama and Northwest Florida Tuesday night as Hurricane Sally battered the region.
More than 56,000 homes and businesses were without power in Alabama as of about 10:30 p.m. CDT Tuesday, nearly all of them in Mobile and Baldwin counties, according to poweroutage.us. About 31,000 outages were being reported in the Florida Panhandle.
Several bridges and roadways were shut down, including the Bankhead Tunnel in Mobile. In Baldwin County, the Highway 59 bridge, Foley Beach Express toll bridge and Perdido Pass bridge all closed. Officials said those on the barrier island would have to remain until the storm passes.
"If you are on the island, you will not be able to get off the island until the bridges reopen," the county's emergency management agency said on Twitter.
(MORE: The Latest Forecast for Hurricane Sally)
Sections of U.S. Highway 98, including the bridge that crosses the state line, were closed in both Florida and Alabama.
Airlines, including Southwest, Delta and United, have waived fees for passengers who need to change their flights because of Hurricane Sally.
Here's a state-by-state look at Sally's wind, waves and rain.
Alabama
Photos and video posted to social media showed flooding along the Alabama coast Tuesday night.
The communities of Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Fort Morgan were under a curfew from 8 p.m. Tuesday to 6 a.m. Wednesday. The curfew will also be in place Wednesday night. Those communities were among several in the county under voluntary evacuation advisories.
The U.S. Postal Service suspended service Tuesday at 60 locations in Alabama.
Conditions worsened throughout the day and evening in many areas. The Orange Beach Police Department said storm surge flooding had washed over several roads, and officials urged residents to stay home.
Dauphin Island lost power early Tuesday morning as flooding that started the day before continued to increase.
Mayor Jeff Collier also confirmed the causeway to the island closed Tuesday morning, WALA-TV reported.
In Bayou La Batre, at least two casino boats broke free from their moorings and smashed into docks, according to video shared on social media.
At a briefing Tuesday, Mobile's Mayor Sandy Stimpson said Hurricane Sally's slow forward progress and heavy rains would saturate the ground and make the city's trees less stable and more vulnerable to Sally's high winds, AL.com reported.
If that happens, "The damage is going to be unbelievable as far as uprooting trees," Stimpson said. "That’s my biggest fear, the tree damage we could have."
Many school districts, including public schools in Mobile and Baldwin counties, canceled classes for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Mobile Regional Airport canceled commercial flights on Tuesday.
"I urge everyone in the coastal areas south of I-10 and in low-lying areas to take all precautions and heed advice from weather experts and local officials. Please stay vigilant, Alabama," Gov. Kay Ivey said Tuesday morning.
Even in Montgomery, which is almost 140 miles inland, city officials offered sandbags to residents to prepare for potential flooding from Sally.
Florida
Pensacola Beach was taking a beating from street flooding.
The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority said water would be shut off to Pensacola Beach due to a water main break. The break can't be repaired until after the storm passes.
Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this week declared a state of emergency in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. On Tuesday afternoon, he added Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Liberty, Okaloosa, Walton and Washington to the declaration.
The Garcon Point Bridge was closed after the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office recorded a wind gust of 40 mph.
The Pensacola Police Department announced the Pensacola Bay Bridge, also called the Three-Mile Bridge, that links Pensacola to the city of Gulf Breeze was closed because winds had reached 39 mph. Police Department spokesman Mike Wood also said a construction barge also has broken loose from its moorings and became stuck under the bridge, according to the Pensacola News Journal.
The city of Gulf Breeze tweeted that the Bay Bridge would remain closed until Hurricane Sally had passed and state Transportation Department officials could examine the bridge. The Lillian Bridge on U.S. 98 over Perdido Bay to Alabama and the Theo Baars Bridge to Perdido Key also closed.
Firefighters left Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key for the mainland Tuesday morning, the Pensacola News Journal reported. Escambia County officials said sheriff's deputies would remain on the beaches to respond to calls for service as long as it was safe.
Many areas of Pensacola Beach were flooded and water rose to the edge of Pensacola Beach Boulevard.
South Garcon Point Road at Katie Street was closed in Santa Rosa County because of the weather. Street flooding also was reported in Okaloosa County.
Voluntary evacuations were issued for parts of Escambia County, including Perdido Key and Pensacola Beach.
Escambia, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa county schools were closed Tuesday and planned to remain closed Wednesday because of Sally.
The University of West Florida announced all of its in-person classes are either going fully remote or are canceled from noon Monday through Tuesday. Pensacola State College also closed Monday.
Pensacola International Airport closed Monday and will remain closed until weather conditions improve and allow for safe operation.
Mississippi
Winds and rain were reported Tuesday night in Pascagoula.
The Mississippi Gaming Commission ordered the 12 casinos in the state to close Monday evening.
Evacuation shelters opened in Jackson, Hancock, Harrison, Pearl River, George and Stone counties. The Mississippi State Medical Needs Shelter in Stone County opened.
(MORE: Full List of Evacuation Orders Ahead of Sally)
Hancock County Emergency Management issued a mandatory evacuation "for all low lying areas, residents living on rivers, river inlets, bayous, creeks and in travel trailers." Also, modular homes, mobile homes, homes under construction and/or partially constructed homes were under evacuation orders.
Harrison County ordered mandatory evacuations "south of the Harrison County Sand Beach sea wall, including the 26 miles of Harrison County Sand Beach, as well as low-lying areas" in the county. The city of Long Beach issued a voluntary evacuation for a one-block area off of Highway 90.
Rupert Lacy, Harrison County emergency management director, said U.S. Highway 90 will become impassable and water will back up into the Bay of Biloxi, Bay of St. Louis and area rivers, lakes and low-lying areas, the Biloxi Sun Herald reported.
(WATCH: Why Slow-Moving Tropical Systems Are the Worst)
Jackson County asked residents in low-lying areas to evacuate voluntarily. The request applied to people who live along rivers, river inlets, bayous, creeks, and in travel trailers, modular homes, mobile homes and homes under construction.
More than a dozen school districts along the coast were closed Tuesday.
Louisiana
Even though Hurricane Sally's projected path shifted toward the east, Louisiana officials urged residents to remain vigilant.
In St. Bernard Parish, parish President Guy McInnis said water was pooling on roadways in low-lying areas, WVUE-TV reported. He said the call for voluntary evacuations would remain in place for now.
"We’ve, you know, been through this with Katrina 15 years ago, and when that storm sits there and it’s slow-moving, it just continues to bring water into our lower-lying community," McInnis said. "Right now, we’re getting that northeast wind. ... We’re still going to feel the effects all throughout today."
The surge overtook some of the parish's levee system, causing at least one highway to be shut down.
The parishes of St. Charles and St. John the Baptist lifted evacuation orders. Plaquemines Parish lifted the mandatory evacuation order for the West Bank, but the order remained in place for the East Bank.
Mandatory evacuation orders remained in place in New Orleans for residents living outside of the parish's levee protection system: Venetian Isle, Irish Bayou and Lake Catherine.
The town of Grand Isle, Louisiana, on a tiny barrier island in the Gulf, also was under a mandatory evacuation order.
Mandatory evacuations also were ordered in the Jean Lafitte area of Jefferson Parish, too, including Barataria and Crown Point, and in parts of Lafourche Parish.
All public schools in at least eight parishes were closed Tuesday, as were many Catholic schools. Xavier and Loyola universities canceled Tuesday classes.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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