NEW ORLEANS — BATON ROUGE - Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards cautioned residents to remain vigilant even as the forecasted track for Hurricane Sally shifted toward the east Monday.
Forecasters from the National Hurricane Center say the storm has slowed and rapidly intensified as it approached the central Gulf Coast. Sally is now forecast to first make landfall either at the mouth of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish or southern Mississippi late Tuesday or Wednesday as a dangerous Category 2 hurricane.
Sally is a slow-moving storm - moving only at 7 mph by Monday afternoon - and is expected to bring life-threatening storm surge and flooding rain to the Gulf Coast stretching from southeast Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.
Even with a projected shift to the east, Edwards said Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Tammany, and Washington parishes still remain inside the NHC’s “cone of uncertainty.”
“Whether you are in the cone or not, make sure you pay attention to your local weather forecast,” Edwards said.
Edwards said that President Donald Trump has approved Louisiana’s request for a major disaster declaration that was submitted Sunday. Meanwhile, Edwards has also reached out to Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves to promise aid to the state’s neighbor if needed.
“We need to be prepared to be a good neighbor to Mississippi and Alabama as well,” Edwards said.
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