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Hurricane "Sally" wreaked havoc in the southern US.
In Pensacola, Florida, ocean water flooded the downtown streets.
500,000 households and businesses were temporarily without electricity.
The hurricane hit land early Wednesday morning with winds of up to 165 kilometers per hour.
The flooding on the coast of the states of Alabama and Florida was "historic and catastrophic," said the National Hurricane Center.
Experts anticipate damage of at least two to three billion dollars.
Logan Estill, Coastal Alabama Resident
"The storm got bad around 8 or 9 pm, then the wind blew properly. From 1 am to 4 am, the eye of the storm hit us. We just got through it. We're upstairs Then we heard all our windows breaking. Then part of the roof flew off and the paneling broke off. We lasted until 5 or 6 a.m. Then we fell asleep and woke up at 9 a.m. and went outside. "
Many coastal towns were flooded to such an extent that wild animals penetrated into residential areas.
Amateur video
That's right outside our window!
That's an alligator 3 to 3.5 meters long!
Ginny Cranor
,
Pensacola Fire Department
"The floods are bad. We had more than 70 centimeters of rain in Pensacola. That means: the rain of four months in four hours."
The problem: Sally was only moving slowly, at just 7 kilometers an hour.
Zach Hood
,
Baldwin County Civil Protection, Alabama
"What was most disastrous for us was how slowly Hurricane" Sally "hit our community. It was extremely slow and it was devastating."
The result was heavy rains because the water did not spread over larger areas.
Sally has since weakened and has been downgraded to a tropical storm.
However, the authorities continue to warn of life-threatening floods along the affected coastal area.
Sally is the eighth tropical storm with hurricane force to hit the USA this year.
