Hundreds of people near the Florida-Alabama border were being rescued from floodwaters brought on by Hurricane Sally, on Wednesday, September 16, and authorities fear many more could be in danger in coming days. The Pensacola Fire Department reported 30 inches of rain fell in Pensacola, which is four months of rain in four hours. Sally has weakened since making landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on Wednesday morning but it’s devastating toll was visible across Southern states by nightfall. By Wednesday night, it was a tropical depression, according to the National Hurricane Center. Located about 10 miles northwest of Troy, Alabama, it had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph and was moving northeast at 9 mph. While all watches and warnings have been discontinued, Sally is still causing torrential rain over eastern Alabama and western Georgia.
When crises like this occur, Maxar is committed to supporting the humanitarian community by providing critical and actionable information to assist response efforts and fulfilling our purpose, For a Better World. As part of our Open Data Program, Maxar will publicly release data of the affected areas to support response efforts as it becomes available.
Any imagery or data distributed through the Open Data Program is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 license (CC BY-NC 4.0). This licensing allows for non-commercial use of the information, meaning it can quickly be integrated into first responder workflows with organizations like Team Rubicon, the Red Cross and other nonprofits. If commercial companies are interested in using the data distributed through the Open Data Program, it can be purchased by contacting us here.
Imagery has been posted on our Open Data Program website. Please continue to check this site and our social media channels for updates on additional post-event data.
Gulf Shores, Alabama on September 17, 2020 after Hurricane Sally.