Hurricane Sally: Live Weather Updates

“This is a LIFE-THREATENING SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!!,” the National Weather Service office in Mobile, Ala., warned in a tweet.

The weather service

noreferrer" target="_blank">reposted videos from residents and local media outlets showing howling winds, trees ripped from their roots, flooded roadways, boats ripped from their moorings and homes damaged in the storm.

The extent of the damage would not be clear until daybreak, but videos from Pensacola Beach, Fla., showed storm surge pushing seawater into residential streets and parks. According to the National Weather Service, a casino barge near Coden, Ala., broke loose because of strong winds and storm surge and slammed into a dock.

In recent days, the storm’s projected point of landfall has veered by nearly 200 miles. It had once been expected to rake over the remote, low-lying areas of southeastern Louisiana and possibly reach beyond the New Orleans metropolitan area, but the latest projections show Sally clipping the southeast corner of Mississippi as it bears down on Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.