Man rides out Hurricane Sally in RV
As Hurricane Sally crawled onto shore during the early hours of Wednesday morning, coastal residents from Mississippi to Florida braced for impact.
The storm had given areas along the Gulf Coast a preview of its power ahead of landfall, a barge crashing into Pensacola's Three Mile Bridge on Tuesday amid deteriorating conditions.
As the storm approached landfall on Wednesday, people staying at Playa Del Rio RV Park in Perdido Key, an unincorporated community between Pensacola and Orange Beach in Escambia County, Florida, took cover. Some headed for the public restroom building on site, which sat on slightly higher ground.
"They had a big party in the lady's room. Most of the people went into the bathroom," Camp host John Russ told AccuWeather Reporter Bill Wadell. "I stayed in the RV."
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Camp host John Russ took shelter in his RV during Hurricane Sally. (AccuWeather/Bill Wadell) |
Hurricane Sally struck Gulf Shores, Alabama, on Sept. 16, the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Ivan making landfall in the same city, as a Category 2 hurricane. The storm's flooding rainfall and lashing winds, however, extended into nearby areas such as Pensacola, Florida, where a section of the Three Mile Bridge across Pensacola Bay went missing after the hurricane.
Hurricane Sally made landfall at its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, dumping over two feet of rain over Pensacola as it crawled northward around 3 mph.
But while storm surge and powerful winds pushed around -- and even flipped over -- RVs closer to the marina, his stayed upright, though the one of the tires had started lifting off the ground.
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John Russ's RV, which he took shelter in during the storm, remained upright throughout Hurricane Sally's onslaught. (AccuWeather/Bill Wadell) |
Billy Pardue from Birmingham, Alabama, who was parked just behind Russ, wasn't as lucky with his RV.
"We secured everything and did the best we could," Pardue told Wadell. "By then, the water was already so high there wasn't much we could do."
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Billy Pardue stands in front of his camper, which he had to righten after Hurricane Sally flipped it onto its side. (AccuWeather/Bill Wadell) |
Pardue had visited the park before the hurricane to prepare the vehicle for the storm, but hadn't stuck around. When he returned after Sally, he found the RV flipped onto its side. He had to righten it to retrieve his personal belongings.
"There were several of [the campers] that were flipped over," Pardue said. "Everyone of them around has been displaced and moved around."
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Vehicles at the park were flipped or displaced after Hurricane Sally. (AccuWeather/Bill Wadell) |
Despite the chaos Sally had brought to this corner of Escambia County, everyone at the park had made it through the storm safely. As for the campers and RVs, Pardue expressed that they could always be replaced.
"It's just things," Pardue said. "Things can be replaced. Good thing is nobody got hurt and everybody's accounted for."
Reporting by Bill Wadell.
