the outer reaches of the storm already dumping torrential rain on south florida, flooding streets there. washing over the sea wall in bay st. louis, mississippi, and kicking up the waves and surf on dauphin island, alabama. mandatory evacuations in effect tonight. let s get right to the latest timing and the track of this. chief meteorologist ginger zee live in the gulf tonight, she s in alabama. you can see the water kicking up there. ginger, what does the latest track show? reporter: david, we are 24 hours from this making landfall and you see that bridge behind me, we were thinking we could be live from dauphin island, that barrier island there. we had to leave, because the causeway was already taking on water. that s how broad and impactful this will be for the next 48 hours. so let me take you to the map, because not only is the gulf of mexico churning here, that storm is more than 100 miles from my southeast, but it is moving west-northwest, and it s slow. that slow movement is
sally s strengthening surge. high water already flooding beach roads and hammering sea walls. the gulf coast bracing for a beast. these images just a taste of what s to come. the surge likely to be over ten feet in spots. it is anticipated that we could exceed 20 inches of rainfall. reporter: across mississippi, we saw families boarding up homes, gassing up and filling sandbags any way they can. we met wanda daniels using a piece of tupperware as a shovel, so we helped her out. because you re in a lower spot, you re probably going to get flooded. always do. when it rains heavy, i always get the water. reporter: officials racing to close flood gates in plaquemines parrish, louisiana. i got a first-hand look at the massive flood wall outside new orleans just a few weeks ago. and then there s this wall. new since katrina, designed to keep any gulf surge out of the city. it is huge. 26 feet high and nearly two miles across. power is going out right now. reporter: sally soaking
river. the storm causing strong storm surges. while it s a category one storm it should not be taken lightly, especially given the destruction seen in central america. 30 deaths when nate was only a tropical storm. no one should take this storm lightly. it claimed the lives of 20 people in nicaragua and honduras. as we know from past storms low intensity doesn t necessarily mean low impact. kelly: let s check in with adam klotz in the extreme weather center. he has all the details and the tracking of the storm and what it imposes. adam: the most of intense part of this storm is running on the coast of mississippi and
here. it s nothing like it was in our earlier reports by the the wall as the water was flashing and the rain was flying sideways. painfully so. everybody seems to have done pretty well here in coastal midst, so far. don t have any reports yet from biloxi. the emergency operations center told me they from thanked no reports of major incidents. there have been power outages east of here. alabama and eastern mississippi. but a lot of those transformers have been repaired quickly. and it s down to 1,000 people at last report. a thousand household that had no power. a fast moving storm. and the back side of the storm doesn t seem accord together radar to be producing have much
administration for harrison county, mississippi, the county that includes biloxi. thank you for joining us. harrison county is the state s second most of populated county. it does include biloxi. what is the situation right now? what we have seen is it did look like it made landfall, the second landfall. probably somewhere biloxi, possibly over to pascagoula. we did see the storm surge that the weather service was talking about. we ll start doing some water he asments, high watermarks in the morning or as the sun starts to come up. probably 11-12 feet. we had a couple beachfront today i havcasinos with water but thee