Texas coast braces for tropical storm
Yes, it looks as if we are going to get lucky and dodge this bullet, but if you live on South Padre Island, it's time to get the hell out of Dodge.
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND -- A hurricane watch was posted today along the South Texas coast as Tropical Storm Claudette crawled across the Gulf of Mexico, and campers packed up and left low-lying South Padre Island.
The storm was expected to make landfall at near hurricane strength as early as Tuesday, said Miles Lawrence, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
A hurricane watch was in effect along the Texas Gulf Coast from Port O'Connor, about 70 miles northeast of Corpus Christi, to Brownsville and south along the Mexican coast to Rio San Fernando.
By 1 p.m. CDT, Claudette was centered about 315 miles east of Brownsville, with maximum sustained wind blowing at 60 mph, 14 mph shy of hurricane strength.
It had been almost stationary for several hours, but was expected to resume moving toward the west-northwest at about 5 mph, with a gradual turn toward the west on Monday, the hurricane center said.
"The circulation is strengthening," meteorologist Jesse Haro said at the National Weather Service in Brownsville. "That doesn't mean it's going to move any faster toward us, it simply means that it's becoming a stronger storm."
Owners of about 900 recreational vehicles parked for the summer on South Padre Island were warned that wind of more than 25 mph would mean they would not be allowed to drive their rigs across the sole bridge to the mainland. By today, most of the campers had packed up voluntarily and left.
Workers on South Padre, along the coast a few miles from Brownsville, piled sand into berms at beach accesses, and Mayor Bob Pinkerton said the resort community was bracing for high water.
No, you do NOT want to get caught in a high crosswind on the Queen Isabella Causeway, especially in an RV. It's the only access point to the island from Port Isabel, and once a hurricane or tropical storm hits, if you're not off the island, you're stuck. Fortunately, most residents are smart enough not to tempt fate. South Padre has no natural barriers and it does not take much to inundate the island. High water could become a major problem very early in a hurricane.
