Tropical Storm Erin hits Texas
Pastor Dale Morgan
Aug 16, 2:31 PM EDT
*Tropical Storm Erin hits Texas*
By ELIZABETH WHITE
Associated Press Writer
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) -- made landfall Thursday as a tropical
depression, bringing torrential downpours to Houston before aiming at
flood-weary central Texas.
One person was killed and another was injured when a waterlogged roof
collapsed at a storage unit at a Houston grocery store, Houston Fire
Chief Omero Longoria said.
Erin came ashore at about 7 a.m. at Copano Bay, about 25 miles northeast
of Corpus Christi.
"We're very fortunate. We're always prepared for the worst and we pray
that we're wrong," said Corpus Christi Fire Department Deputy Chief
Michael Hernandez. "For the most part it looks like we dodged a bullet."
Meanwhile, Hurricane Dean was strengthening in the open Atlantic, and
early Thursday became the first hurricane of the season.
Erin's wind fell to 35 mph, lower than the 39 mph threshold for tropical
storms, when it howled ashore.
But it first stopped in Houston, strangling midday traffic with street
flooding that stranded dozens of cars. A flash-flood warning remained in
effect for the entire area surrounding Houston.
The storm's center moved inland toward the already soggy Hill Country in
central Texas at around 15 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The corridor between San Antonio and Austin was facing 3 to 10 inches of
rain, according to the National Weather Service.
Forecasters said said 33 counties were under a flash-flood watch through
Friday morning, including the Hill Country, which has been pounded by
deadly storms and record rainfall this summer.
So far this year, Corpus Christi has received nearly 33 inches of rain -
more than 15 inches above normal. The summer storms poured record
rainfall across Texas and parts of Oklahoma and Kansas, with floods
killing 16 people since mid-June. One July storm dropped 17 inches of
rain in 24 hours. It brought Texas out of drought status for the first
time in more than a decade.
The weather service said isolated tornadoes were possible Thursday along
the middle Texas coast.
The storm did not keep customers away from the Bayside Express
convenience store in Seadrift, a fishing town 60 miles northeast of
Corpus Christi.
"It's just raining real hard and blowing real hard," clerk Jamie Hartman
said Thursday morning. "There's not really any flooding, but I've had
some people tell me that saw some trees lifted up."
Erin formed late Tuesday as the fifth depression of the Atlantic
hurricane season and was upgraded to a tropical storm Wednesday when its
maximum sustained wind speed hit 40 mph.
Gov. Rick Perry ordered emergency vehicles and personnel, including
National Guard troops, to the Harlingen and Corpus Christi areas. Shell
Oil Co. evacuated 188 people Wednesday from offshore facilities in the
storm's path.
Corpus Christi hadn't asked for any evacuations, said Ted Nelson, a city
spokesman, and was keeping only a handful of people at the emergency
operations center overnight.
Nelson said that with 3 1/2 months left in the season, the storm was "a
nice little wake-up call" for people to make sure they are prepared for
more severe weather.
Some weren't taking any chances.
"We came out to get as much beach time in as possible," said John
Cullison of the Dallas area, who was vacationing with his family and
planned to leave southern Texas on Thursday instead of Friday. "After
the hurricanes from a few years ago, you have to take it kind of serious."
As Dean became a hurricane, forecasters said early Thursday they were
beginning to see an eye form at the storm's center.
At 2 p.m. EDT, Dean's top sustained winds were near 90 mph, up from 75
mph earlier in the day. It remained a Category 1 storm and was centered
about 350 miles east of Barbados. It was moving west at around 23 mph
and its center should approach the Lesser Antilles on Friday.
About 2 to 5 inches of rain were expected, with mountainous areas
getting up to 7 inches.
The Caribbean islands of Dominica and St. Lucia issued hurricane
warnings as Dean approached. A hurricane watch was in effect for
Martinique, Guadeloupe and its dependencies.
Tropical storm warnings were issued for the islands of Antigua;
Barbados; Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Monserrat; Nevis; St.
Kitts; and St. Maarten. A tropical storm watch was in effect for Grenada
and its dependencies. A warning means storm conditions are expected
within 24 hours, a watch means 36 hours.
In the Pacific, Flossie was downgraded from a tropical storm to a
depression, a day after sideswiping Hawaii's Big Island with only
intermittent rain and moderate winds.
Hurricane specialists expect this year's Atlantic hurricane season -
June 1 to Nov. 30 - to be busier than average, with as many as 16
tropical storms, nine of them strengthening into hurricanes. Ten
tropical storms developed in the Atlantic last year, but only two made
landfall in the United States.
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Associated Press writer Lynn Brezosky contributed to this report from
South Padre Island, Texas.
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On the Net:
National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
Central Pacific Hurricane Center: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/cphc/