Category 2 Hurricane Sally makes landfall in southern US

WASHINGTON: Hurricane Sally made landfall on the southern coast of the United States early Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The Category 2 Hurricane, bringing maximum sustained winds of up to 105 miles (165 kilometers) per hour, could provoke "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding" in coastal areas, the center said.

Ahead of its landfall, Sally strengthened to a Category 2 Hurricane on Monday as it moved over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico on the U.S. southeast coast.

According to forecast, Sally slowly moves northwest through the Gulf towards the north-central Gulf coast, continuing gaining power before landfall. Forecasters warned that Sally could become a Category 3 major hurricane when making landfall along the coast of Mississipi and Alabama.

Hurricane warnings were issued for southeast Louisiana and all of the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf coast. A Tropical Storm Warning extended through much of the Florida Panhandle.

Once expected to be a direct hit on New Orleans, Louisiana, Sally moved east on Monday but could still cause wind damage and power outage in the city, expert said.

On Saturday, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency ahead of Sally. Evacuation orders were also issued in southeast areas of the state.

US President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency in the state of Florida due to Hurricane Sally that has been raging off the US coast for several days, White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere said on Wednesday.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned on Tuesday that the hurricane, the second storm bearing down on the US coast of the Gulf of Mexico in a span of three weeks, could bring "extreme, life-threatening" and historic floods to the region.

Hurricane Sally comes less than three weeks after Hurricane Laura, one of the strongest US hurricanes in more than a century, made landfall near Cameron, Louisiana, in late August as a Category 4 storm. That hurricane, which killed at least 25 people and damaged countless property, also scored a near-direct hit on one refinery in Louisiana processing 769,000 barrels per day of crude oil.