Humberto Crashes Into Texas

HOUSTON – Hurricane Humberto crashed ashore along Southeast Texas early today, bringing heavy rains and maximum sustained winds of up to 80 mph as it made its way to eastern Louisiana, the National Weather Service said.The Category 1 storm made landfall about five miles east of High Island, near Sea Rim State Park, where wind gusts measured 62 mph, meteorologist Jim Sweeney said. The storm was expected to start weakening as it continued inland.“It’s a very compact storm,” Mr. Sweeney said. The strongest winds are very close to the center of circulation. The hurricane force winds only go about a 15 miles.”A hurricane warning was issued from east of High Island to Cameron, La. A tropical storm warning was in effect from east of Sargent to High Island, and from east of Cameron to Intracoastal City, La. The storm was initially expected to strike as a tropical storm until it energized into a Category One hurricane after midnight.The storm’s rain bands were spreading over the coast and between 5 and 10 inches of rain were expected, with some spots possibly getting as much as 15 inches. But authorities said evacuations were not necessary.The area expected to be hit the hardest is in the far southeast corner of Texas from Galveston Island eastward. It includes the Beaumont and Port Arthur areas.Texas has had one of the wettest summers on record, with Houston soaked under the most rain it’s had in a summer since 1942. With the ground already saturated, flooding was likely.Governor Perry, Republican of Texas, activated 50 military vehicles with 200 soldiers, plus a half-dozen helicopters and two swift-water rescue teams. Other crews from the U.S. Coast Guard were on standby.“Some areas of our state remain saturated by summer floods, and many communities in this storm’s projected path are at high risk of dangerous flash flooding,” Mr. Perry said.Meanwhile, Governor Blanco, Democrat of Louisiana, declared a state of emergency. Calcasieu and Vermilion parishes had shelters on standby. Vermilion also was making sandbags and sand available, said a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, Mark Smith.The warning area included Louisiana’s Cameron Parish, which was devastated by Hurricane Rita in September 2005. More than 500 federally issued travel trailers and mobile homes remain there.Last month, at least six deaths were blamed on Tropical Storm Erin, which dropped nearly a foot of rain in parts of San Antonio, Houston and the Texas Hill Country.In 2001, slow-moving Tropical Storm Allison soaked Houston, dumping about 20 inches of rain in eight hours. About two dozen people died, sections of the city were paralyzed and damage was estimated at roughly $5 billion.“Parts of East Texas could be hit pretty hard,” Houston Mayor Bill White said, noting that the east turn of the storm could reduce possible damage to Houston. “But you can’t tell. Remember Allison. It just sat there instead of moving.”Humberto’s arrival comes just days after Galveston last Saturday marked the 107th anniversary of the great 1900 storm where more than 6,000 people were killed in what remains the nation’s deadliest natural disaster.Humberto is the eighth named storm this year and formed from a depression that developed yesterday morning. It became a Category One hurricane when winds reached above 74 mph.Another tropical depression also formed yesterday far in the open Atlantic, about 1,065 miles east of the Lesser Antilles. It had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph and was moving west-northwest at about 12 mph. Forecasters said it could become a tropical storm later today.———On the Net:National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

Humberto Crashes Into Texas

Humberto Crashes Into Texas

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