Hurricane Sally weakens to tropical storm, brings 'historic flooding' to U.S. Gulf Coast

Jordan Spence and Dawson Stallworth watch waves come ashore as Hurricane Sally approaches in Orange Beach, Alabama, U.S., September 15, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman

PENSACOLA, Fla. (Reuters) - Hurricane Sally uprooted trees, flooded streets and cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses on Wednesday as it brought what the U.S. National Hurricane Center called "historic and catastrophic" flooding to the Alabama-Florida coast.

Sally, which made landfall early on Wednesday near Gulf Shores, Alabama, as a Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity, was downgraded in the afternoon to a tropical storm as maximum sustained winds dropped to 70 miles per hour (113 kph).