BATON ROUGE – Governor John Bel Edwards has a message for those living in Southeast Louisiana ahead of Tropical Storm Sally hitting; "take this storm seriously."

“We have really good reason to be very concerned about this storm, particularly because it is going to be a slow moving storm,” said Edwards. “The slower it moves the longer the winds generate a storm surge, and the longer the rain bands have to just drop torrential amounts of rain.”

During a press conference on Sunday, Gov. Edwards said Sally will likely turn into a category two hurricane when it hits land. Because of this, Meteorologist Benjamin Schott with the National Weather Service says widespread power outages is expected.

“Hurricane force winds will have a width of about 40 to 60 miles. So it’s not a particularly large storm, but if you are in that wind field with winds and gusts at 100 mph, it will do significant damage and cause power outages,” said Schott.

The latest forecast has many preparing for the storm.

“That’s why I’m here,” said Dwayne Fisher as he shoveled sand into bags at Sidney Hutchinson Park in Walker. “With everything going on this is the last thing anyone needs.”

The state has already pre-positioned generators, pumps and sand bags all around Southeast Louisiana.