Sally, now a hurricane, threatens U.S. Gulf coast

Mississippi residents and those living in low-lying areas in Louisiana were under evacuation orders as Sally churned across the Gulf of Mexico, gaining hurricane strength on Monday.

BAY ST. LOUIS RESIDENT, TERRY (NO LAST NAME GIVEN): "So we have to take precautions of everything right now, making sure that we have everything for the storm, making sure that if they say leave, we will leave."

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said Sally is a slow but powerful storm, expected to make landfall as a category 2 hurricane in the southeast part of the state as early as Tuesday.

"What we know with a slow-moving storm, if one of those bands settle over part of Louisiana, we know that flooding is going to be a big concern."

Sally could dump 8 to 16 inches of rain on the coast and could cause widespread flooding.

Thousands of Louisiana residents are still living in temporary housing after they evacuated for Hurricane Laura, whose damaging winds and rains wrecked havoc just weeks ago.

Other residents are still clearing debris and tens of thousands are still without power.. Sally's path remains east of that hard-hit area.

"The past 24-hours have shown a couple of shifts eastward on the track for Hurricane Sally... Obviously, if that continues to happen, that's good news for our state, it is not good news for our neighbors in Mississippi and in Alabama."

Energy companies in the U.S. Gulf have slowed or cut refinery output and scrambled to pull workers from offshore oil and gas production platforms.

Sally is the 18th named storm in the Atlantic this year and will be the eighth of tropical storm or hurricane strength to hit the United States.