(PENSACOLA, Fla.) — A newly strengthened Hurricane Sally pummeled the Florida Panhandle and south Alabama with sideways rain, beach-covering storm surges, strong winds and power outages early Wednesday, moving toward shore at an agonizingly slow pace that promised a drawn out drenching and possible record floods. Some 150,000 homes and businesses had lost electricity by early Wednesday, according to the poweroutage.us site.