Hurricane Hanna made landfall on Texas’ Padre Island on Saturday afternoon. Local officials on Saturday asked residents to stay home and ride out the storm, but to also be mindful of the pandemic.
HOUSTON — Hurricane Hanna made landfall on Texas’ Padre Island on Saturday afternoon. The storm made landfall about 15 miles (24 miles) north of Port Mansfield, Texas, with maximum winds of 90 mph (145 kph), the U. S. National Hurricane Center said in a 5 p.m. CDT update. Local officials on Saturday asked residents to stay home and ride out the storm, but to also be mindful of the pandemic. Meteorologists say the biggest concern from Hanna is expected to be flash flooding. Tropical Storm Hanna was upgraded to a hurricane Saturday, moving toward the Texas coast and threatening to bring heavy rain, storm surge and possible tornadoes to a part of the country trying to cope with a surge in coronavirus cases. The storm, which is the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, was expected to make landfall Saturday afternoon or evening south of Corpus Christi, the U. S. National Hurricane Center said Saturday morning. It had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph) and was centered about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east-southeast of Corpus Christi and was moving west at 9 mph (15 kph). Many parts of Texas, including the area where Hanna is expected to come ashore, have been dealing with a spike in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, but local officials said they were prepared for whatever the storm may bring.”And don’t feel like since we’ve been fighting COVID for five months, that we’re out of energy or we’re out of gas. We’re not,” Corpus Christi Mayor Joe McComb said Friday. “We can do these two things together and we’re going to win both of them.”Corpus Christi is in Nueces County, where health officials made headlines when they revealed that 60 infants tested positive for COVID-19 from July 1 to July 16. Farther south in Cameron County, which borders Mexico, more than 300 confirmed new cases have been reported almost daily for the past two weeks, according to state health figures.
