Torturously Slow Hurricane Sally Makes Landfall

Hurricane Sally made landfall Wednesday morning near Gulf Shores, Ala., as a Category 2 storm, pushing a surge of ocean water onto the coast and dumping torrential rain that forecasters said would cause dangerous flooding from the Florida Panhandle to Mississippi and well inland in the days ahead. Moving at an agonizingly slow 3mph, the AP reports that Sally finally came ashore at 4:45am local time with top winds of 105mph, the National Hurricane Center said. Sally’s northern eyewall had raked the Gulf Coast with hurricane-force winds and rain from Pensacola Beach, Florida, westward to Dauphin Island, Alabama, for hours before its center finally hit land. Nearly 400,000 homes and businesses are without power, according to the utility tracker poweroutage.us, as the winds and rain down power lines and flood streets and homes. (More hurricane season stories.)