Hanna, the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic season, left a trail of destruction along the Texas coast on Sunday, knocking down power lines, flooding streets, and overturning 18-wheelers as torrential rains threatened the area.
Hanna made landfall on Father Island on Saturday afternoon as a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale and then made landfall a second time in Kenedy County, Texas. It spread through a part of the state affected by the coronavirus pandemic. By Sunday, it had weakened to a tropical depression.
Hanna’s powerful winds knocked down at least three 18-wheelers and a recreational vehicle, with cranes trying to straighten the downed vehicles on Sunday, closing a 2-mile (3.2 km) stretch of U.S. Route 77 in Sarita, Texas, near the Mexican border.
A satellite image shows Hurricane Hanna in the Gulf of Mexico, approaching the coast of Texas, USA, July 25, 2020.
NOAA | Reuters
At Port Mansfield, 150 miles (240 km) south of Padre Island, winds swept through the sugar cane fields and leveled the trees. The deer roamed the streets, stopping to nibble on fallen branches in the backyards, some of which lost their roofs.
Heavy rains of more than a foot (30 cm) of rain flooded roads and grew streams and rivers in South Texas, the National Weather Service said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
“You could hear the wind blowing and the rain blowing, and looking outside you could see layers of water coming down the street,” said Sharon Pecce, 75, a resident of Port Mansfield, whose roof was ripped from her home on Saturday by the night.
“It’s scary to go through this at my age, a lot could have happened … we could have been killed,” added Pecce, who was at the home of a friend with her husband of 70 when the damage occurred. “We are lucky we were not there.”
Roderick Kise, a spokesman for the United States Customs and Border Protection Office in the Rio Grande Valley, told the Caller Times newspaper in Corpus Christi that his agency was investigating a report that the winds collapsed a recently constructed part of the wall. border built between the United States and Mexico
At one time, more than 283,000 homes and businesses were without power. But that number dropped to 98,000 on Sunday night, according to poweroutage.us.
The storm was not expected to affect offshore oil and gas production. Power companies have not evacuated workers or shut down production from their Gulf of Mexico platforms because of Hanna.
Some residents took advantage of the wild weather, with Alejandero Carcano, 16, and Jesse Garewal, 18, both from Galveston, surfing the high waves hit by Hanna.
Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement Sunday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency declared the storm a federal emergency and would help fund evacuation and shelter efforts.
Galveston Island Beach Patrol lifeguard Matthew Herdrich walks along the rock on 39th Street in Galveston, Texas as waves lifted by Tropical Storm Hanna wash over her on Friday, July 24, 2020.
Jennifer Reynolds | The Galveston County Daily News via AP
“I continue to urge Texans to heed the guidance of their local leaders and follow best practices to keep themselves and their loved ones safe as severe weather moves through our communities,” he said.
The Texas area hit by Hanna has struggled to contain COVID-19 outbreaks in recent weeks. Cases along the state’s coast have skyrocketed to tens of thousands.
According to the state health department, more than 440 people in the Corpus Christi area were hospitalized with the disease.
Still a threat
Weakening as it headed west by land, downtown Hanna on Sunday was about 35 miles (55 km) from Monterrey, Mexico, as it was moving 9 miles per hour (15 kph), the National Center for US Hurricanes In a bulletin released at 4 pm (2100 GMT).
The storm’s maximum sustained winds were around 35 mph (56 kph), the center said.
The storm is forecast to lose more steam as it progresses through Texas and northeast Mexico. On Sunday, weather watch officers canceled a storm surge warning they had issued for the Texas coast.
Allen Heath examines the damage to a private marina after it was hit by Hurricane Hanna on Sunday, July 26, 2020, in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Eric Gay | AP
Hanna still posed a threat, forecasters said, noting that it could shed more than 18 inches (45 cm) of rain in isolated areas of South Texas as of Monday.
“This rain will produce life-threatening flash floods, rapid increases in small streams, and isolated flooding of minor to moderate rivers,” the NHC said.
In the Pacific, Hurricane Douglas was stirring near Hawaii on Sunday, with torrential rains and damaging winds.
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