Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Alex Becomes Hurricane, Targets U.S. Border

Alex has become the first hurricane of the Atlantic season and is churning through the western Gulf, taking aim at the Mexico-Texas border while staying far away from the massive oil spill.



Alex had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph late Tuesday. The National Hurricane Center says the Category 1 storm is the first June Atlantic hurricane since 1995.



Forecasters say landfall seems likely Wednesday night. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 15 miles from the storm\'s center. Tropical storm-force winds extend 175 miles.



A hurricane warning was posted for the Texas coast from Baffin Bay, south to the mouth of the Rio Grande river and south to La Cruz, Mexico.



Alex is expected to be at the low-end of the hurricane strength spectrum, but still will bring torrential rains to a Rio Grande delta region ill-suited, both economically and geographically, to handle it.



Passing showers Tuesday quickly pooled along parts of downtown streets in Brownsville and Matamoros, a worrisome sign with Alex expected to dump eight to 12 inches of rain in the region and as much as 20 inches in isolated areas.



Nearly 400,000 people live in Cameron County at the southernmost tip of Texas, one of the poorest counties in the U.S. Across the Rio Grande, Matamoros is a sprawling example of the border\'s explosive growth. Colonias, slapdash communities of fragile housing and little to no infrastructure, cling to its outer edges and house some 13,000 families in the lowest lying areas.



Farther north in the Gulf of Mexico, BP PLC and the Coast Guard called ships skimming oil from the water back to shore Tuesday because Alex was making seas too rough to work. Waves were as high as 12 feet in some parts of the Gulf. Only the vessels used to capture or burn oil and gas leaking from the well and to drill two relief wells were left at sea.



Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued a disaster declaration, allowing the state to pre-deploy resources to south Texas. President Barack Obama also issued a federal emergency declaration for 19 south Texas counties, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency provide assistance for debris removal and storm-related preparations.



In Matamoros, cab driver Alfonso Lopez still worried people would wait until the last minute to take the storm seriously.



\"A lot of people trust too much that it won\'t be very bad or it will change course,\" he said.

Ana Maria Aguilar, 47, reflected that view as she sat in the shade of a tree near the Matamoros side of an international bridge connecting to Brownsville.



\"For us, it\'s a little early; most of us aren\'t worried because they (hurricanes) always turn (away),\" Aguilar said. \"One has never hit us hard.\"



Still, she said she would make sure she had food, water, flashlights and a battery-powered radio at the ready. And if it gets really bad, she will take her family to a shelter, she said.



Nearby, government workers stuck duct-tape in X\'s across the windows of the immigration office at the main downtown bridge. Trucks cruised slowly down residential streets replacing people\'s large drinking water jugs and cars packed supermarket parking lots.



Matamoros Civil Protection Director Saul Hernandez said they would begin evacuating about 2,500 people from coastal areas east of the city Wednesday morning. But Hernandez said his real concern was 13,000 families in 95 of the city\'s low-lying colonias, unincorporated areas where residents frequently have no public utilities or city services.



He urged residents to make their own preparations to ride out the storm.



\"This is where we live,\" he said. \"We have to confront it.\"



In Brownsville, crews cleared roadside ditches and placed water pumps at flood-prone intersections. Windows were boarded up at government buildings and the University of Texas at Brownsville-Texas Southmost College, which closed Tuesday afternoon.



State emergency officials in Austin predicted the storm would have minimal impact on Texas but were readying equipment for border residents if needed. Interim Emergency Management Division Chief Nim Kidd said 100 buses were on standby in the event of evacuations, 25 of them in McAllen, about 50 miles west of Brownsville. Twenty-five ambulances also were en route.

Kidd said 100 troopers were on standby, as were 500 first-responders if needed for search-and-rescue operations. More than 100 boats also were ready to deployed if needed. Kidd stressed there was no apparent need evacuate in Texas with \"contraflow\" evacuation lanes on highways, but emergency management officials were keeping a close eye on the storm.



The National Weather Service said a hurricane warning was in effect Tuesday for Cameron, Willacy and Kenedy counties. The coastal warning covered Baffin Bay and 100 miles south to the mouth of the Rio Grande.



But even as South Padre Island announced beach closings Tuesday afternoon, visitors and residents tried to squeeze in as much time as possible. They sized up Alex as hardly a terror like Hurricane Dolly, which tore through the island two years ago as a Category 2 storm.



A caravan of missionaries from Bob Jones University in South Carolina played in the rough surf late until an abrupt gust of fierce wind and rain sent the entire beach scrambling to vehicles.

The storm came just as Don and Grace Eaton were to renew wedding vows on their 30th anniversary, in front of South Padre\'s famous \"El Cristo de los Pescadores\" statue overlooking the darkening gulf. The couple from Leander fretted the ceremony would be washed out before the driving rain suddenly slowed to a mist.



\"Let\'s have a wedding,\" said Jackie Walker, the couple\'s photographer, darting out of the car.

The couple renewed their vows on a beach empty of tourists and evacuated campgoers, and a wave crashing against the rocks soaked Grace Eaton moments after saying, \"I do.\"



\"It\'s like a marriage,\" she said. \"Some days are stormy. Then you get clear weather and you overcome it all.\"


News From: http://www.7StarNews.com

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