Tropical Storm Gordon made landfall west of the Alabama-Mississippi border late Tuesday night, unleashing powerful winds that has already claimed one life in Florida.
Emergency responders in Florida's Escambia County received a call around 8:40 p.m. of a downed tree that slammed into a mobile home in Pensacola. EMS crews confirmed one pediatric fatality. No others were injured.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.
Gordon is expected to lose strength as it makes its way inland across the lower Mississippi Valley through Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Gordon had moved from 70 miles south of Mobile, Ala., and roughly 75 miles southeast of Biloxi, garnering maximum sustained winds of 70 mph "with higher gusts" before moving northwest toward the north-central Gulf Coast at 14 mph, where it was forecasted to hit land, the NHC said in a 8 p.m.
The storm quickly blasted Alabama's Dauphin Island with powerful winds and storm surge, as photos and video from the area showed.
On the forecast track, the center of Gordon will make landfall along the north-central Gulf Coast within the hurricane warning area this evening or tonight, and move inland over the lower Mississippi Valley through Wednesday,” the NHC update said. “Gordon could still become a hurricane before landfall occurs along the north-central Gulf Coast.
The hurricane warning remained in effect for the area stretching from the mouth of the Pearl River in Mississippi to the Alabama-Florida border, the NHC said. As much as 8 inches of rain could fall in some parts of the Gulf states through late Thursday, which could trigger flash flooding in some areas.
A storm surge warning also remained for Shell Beach, Louisiana to Dauphin Island, which could see water levels reach up to five feet, the NHC said. The warning indicates “a danger of life-threatening inundations, from rising water moving inland from the coastline.”
“This is a life-threatening situation,” the update warned. “Persons located within these areas should take all necessary actions to protect life and property from rising water and the potential for other dangerous conditions.”
A storm surge watch also was in place for areas located west of Shell Beach to the mouth of the Mississippi River, as well as areas east of Dauphin Island to Navarre.
President Trump on Tuesday urged residents to adhere to guidance from officials, adding that the government “stands ready to assist.
Governors in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana all declared states of emergency, allowing them to quickly mobilize state resources and National Guard troops to help during and after the storm.
Roughly 200 members of the Louisiana National Guard were activated for the storm, the National Guard tweeted Tuesday.
Gordon was poised for only a glancing blow to New Orleans, where Mayor LaToya Cantrell told The Associated Press that the city has "the pumps and the power" needed to protect residents.
Authorities issued a voluntary evacuation order for areas outside the city's levee protection system, including the Venetian Isles, Lake Saint Catherine and Irish Bayou communities.
L.J. Cazaux, who decided to raise his house following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, decided to relocate his boat to a nearby lot of elevated land before the rain started in Venetian Isles, he told The Associated Press. He also has basic necessities like food and water, as well as two generators, ahead of Gordon's potential landfall.
"You just blend it into your lifestyle when you live outside the levee system. You know you're going to flood before anyone else does. The good part about it is the water goes down faster here," said Cazaux, who has lived in the neighborhood for 15 years.