As the Tropical Storm Sally pounded the US southeast on Wednesday with torrential rain, one person was killed, several trees drowned, streets and homes flooded, and knocked out power. 

Sally, a former hurricane that downgraded to a tropical storm, made landfall overnight near Gulf Shores, Alabama along the border with Florida as a Category 2 hurricane. The National Hurricane Centre said that the tropical storm caused severe flooding with copious amounts of rain.

At 8:00 pm (0000 GMT Thursday), Sally had maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour (75 kilometers per hour), the NHC said, warning that “a few tornadoes” could occur in parts of northern Florida and southern Georgia.

“Catastrophic and life-threatening flooding continues over portions of the Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama,” the NHC warned. One fatality was reported by the US media in the coastal town of Orange Beach, Alabama but Mayor Tony Kennon said he had no further details, according to the news site AL.com.

Some of the worst reported flooding occurred some 30 miles (50 kilometers) east in the city of Pensacola, Florida, which has a population of around 52,000.

“Flooded roadways and intersections, along with hazardous debris in roadways (locations) have become too numerous to list,” the Pensacola police tweeted and asked people to stay off-road. 

The new Three Mile Bridge over Pensacola Bay had to close after it suffered massive damage with a section missing. Sally was crawling towards the northeast at seven miles per hour, the NHC said.

The storm was expected to weaken as it moved further inland and become a tropical depression overnight Wednesday to Thursday.

More than 515,000 homes and businesses in Alabama and Florida have lost power, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us.