Hurricane Hanna—the first of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season—struck the coast of Texas on Sunday morning, causing flooding and heavy rains, weakening into a tropical storm after making landfall.
Adding to the danger posed by the virus, Texas has also been reeling under a wave of COVID-19 cases. Governor Greg Abott on Saturday said the hurricane poses a severe challenge as it is sweeping “through an are that is the most challenged area in the state for COVID-19”.
Texas had nearly four lakh cases of COVID-19 and the state had suffered over 5,000 deaths related to the virus so far.
By morning, hurricane Hanna had maximum sustained wind speeds of 50mph (80kph) and caused between 4-6 inches of rainfall. Relatively less damage was reported although a pier in Corpus Christie collapsed, damaging docks and leaving the water filled by jetsam.
Parts of southern Texas and northern Mexico were inundated by heavy rains, with flash flood warnings issued by the National Weather Service of South Texas and the middle Texas Coast. The National Hurricane Centre warned of “life-threatening” flash flooding over south Texas and northern Mexico and isolated minor to moderate river flooding in south Texas.
Over 250,000 South Texas residents are estimated to have gone without power, CNN reported power companies as saying.
Meanwhile, another hurricane, Douglas, is making its way towards Hawaii. However, it has been downgraded to a Category 1 storm as of Sunday; on Friday it was a Category 4 hurricane and at one point was the strongest storm on the planet. Hurricane warnings have been issued in Oahu, Kauai County and Maui County.
