In the US state of Alabama and in northwestern Florida, residents suffer from “catastrophic floods.” Those are the work of Storm Sally. According to the website poweroutage.com, more than 550,000 households in both states were without power on Wednesday.
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Sally made landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama, Wednesday at 4:45 AM as a Category 2 hurricane. Since then, Sally has weakened into a tropical storm with wind speeds of up to 95 kilometers per hour. The storm itself moves very slowly (at about 11 kilometers per hour), which means that the heavy downpours hang over the same zone for a long time and the water level in those areas is rising rapidly.
Sally is expected to weaken into a tropical depression as she moves inland, US Hurricane Center NHC said. The institution warns that the storm is currently causing ‘catastrophic and historic flooding’.
Scientists have long warned that as the ocean surface warms further, the hurricanes will get stronger. At the beginning of September, no fewer than five storms raged simultaneously over the Atlantic Ocean with Paulette, René, Teddy, Vicky and Sally, a record since 1971. There have been so many tropical storms over this ocean this year that the United Nations, which names each storm almost through their stock of first names. That is something that has only happened once in history, in 2005.
Foto: Getty Images
–Foto: Getty Images
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