⁍ Hurricane Sally rapidly strengthened on Monday over the Gulf of Mexico.

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⁍ Storm could hit the central Gulf Coast on Tuesday as nearly a major hurricane.

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⁍ It could wallop the Mississippi and Alabama coasts on Tuesday with devastating winds of up to 110 mph.

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– “We are going to bear the brunt of this storm,” Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday as residents of low-lying areas along the Gulf Coast filled sandbags and moved cars and boats to higher ground ahead of Hurricane Sally, expected to hit the central Gulf Coast as a Category 3 hurricane on Tuesday. Mississippi and Louisiana called for evacuations of low-lying areas and President Trump issued an emergency disaster declaration for both states, Reuters reports. Alabama closed the state’s beaches and recommended evacuations of residents in low-lying areas. Ports, schools, and businesses were closing along the coast. “We have to make sure that everything is tied down and out of the way so it doesn’t float away or become airborne,” said Steve Forstall, a Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, port employee. Water from the bay spilled onto a beachside roadway in the coastal town, roughly 50 miles northeast of New Orleans. Workers were boarding up homes and securing items that could become projectiles in high winds. The US Coast Guard restricted travel on the lower Mississippi River in New Orleans to the Gulf, and closed the ports of Pascagoula and Gulfport, Mississippi, and Mobile, Alabama. Energy companies buttoned up or halted oil refineries and pulled workers from offshore oil and gas production platforms. Sally’s path remains east of that hard-hit area. The US Federal Emergency Management Agency sent new resources without taking help away from southwestern Louisiana, where Hurricane Laura left a trail of destruction. There are more than 12,000 evacuees staying in hotels in New Orleans, and Edwards advised them to “stay put in your shelter.”