The satellite image shows Hurricane Hannah in the Gulf of Mexico. (AFP)
Houston:
Texas, already grappling with a spate of coronavirus cases, braced on Saturday after Storm Hanna strengthened in the first Atlantic hurricane of 2020, with meteorologists warning of heavy rain, storm surge and potentially fatal flash floods.
The storm, with wind speeds of around 80 miles per hour (130 kilometers per hour), strengthened to become a Category 1 hurricane overnight and is expected to make landfall in the afternoon or early evening, said the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
This could result in storm surges of up to five feet and up to 18 inches of rain falling over parts of south Texas, the NHC said, warning of dangerous flash flooding.
Hanna was about 85 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas, at 10:00 a.m. local time (3:00 p.m. GMT), and was moving west at about seven miles per hour, according to an NHC advisory.
Due to make a slight turn later in the day, it “is expected to make landfall along the Texas coast in the hurricane warning zone this afternoon or early this evening,” the advisory continued.
Storm warnings were already in effect along the Texas Gulf Coast by early Saturday. In Corpus Christi, a city of 325,000, authorities shut down libraries and museums as residents braced for the storm, local media reported.
Hanna will roar to the ground as Texas already faces a huge rise in coronavirus infections, with officials instituting a statewide mask mandate to try to curb the spread of the disease.
Two other storm systems were bubbling up on Saturday: Pacific Hurricane Douglas, which hit the Hawaiian Islands, and Tropical Storm Gonzalo in the Atlantic, near the Windward Islands.
Douglas – at one point a powerful Category 4 hurricane – weakened to a Category 2 storm with wind speeds of 105 miles per hour.
The NHC said on Saturday the storm would continue to weaken as it approached Hawaii, “potentially passing dangerously near or over the islands late tonight through Sunday night,” bringing high winds and heavy waves.
Hurricane warnings were in effect Saturday in counties of Hawaii and Maui as well as Oahu.
Meanwhile, Gonzalo was pouring heavy rain over the Windward Islands, but the tropical storm is expected to weaken and dissipate on Sunday evening.
