BEFORE THE STORM HITS

Tropical Storm Sally Upgraded to Category 2 Hurricane, Expected to Make Landfall Tuesday

The region was still picking up the pieces after Hurricane Laura came roaring through, killing at least 25 in Louisiana alone.

The National Hurricane Center upgraded Tropical Storm Sally to a Category 2 hurricane early Monday afternoon, releasing messages at 4 p.m. Central Time warning of a "dangerous and life-threatening storm surge" in southeastern Louisiana and projected storm surges along the Mississippi, Alabama, and western Florida coasts.

Hurricane Sally was now expected to make landfall sometime Tuesday night, possibly as a Category 3 storm, and its trajectory has shifted east, with the Mississippi and Alabama coasts under hurricane warning. Officials in those states have already begun emergency preparations and possible mandatory evacuation orders, while Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards ordered mandatory evacuations of several areas. In that state, Sally was poised to arrive less than three weeks after Category 4 storm Laura caused widespread damage and was tied to at least 25 deaths. As of late Monday, Sally was one of five simultaneous tropical cyclones in the Atlantic, a weather phenomenon that had only happened once in recorded history.