Hurricane Hanna made landfall landfall on Padre Island, Texas, at 5 P.M. CDT about 15 miles (20 km) north of Port Mansfield, Texas.
Hurricane Hanna made landfall on Padre Island, Texas, at 5 P. M. CDT about 15 miles (20 km) north of Port Mansfield, Texas. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (150 km/h) at the time it roared ashore, according to The National Hurricane Center (NHC). Texans spent much of Saturday bracing for a direct impact from Hanna on Saturday, after the storm rapidly strengthened overnight and became the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. As Hanna bore down on the southern Texas coast, it was packing maximum sustained winds of 90 mph. The NHC officially declared Hanna a Category 1 hurricane at 7 a.m. CDT on Saturday. NOAA Hurricane Hunters flew into the Category 1 hurricane early Saturday morning and reported that the center of the storm was 100 miles away from Corpus Christi, Texas, and approaching the coast at 9 mph. With warm waters and light wind shear in its path prior to landfall, Hanna strengthened a bit more prior to making landfall between Corpus Christi and Port Mansfield, Texas, on Saturday afternoon. As of 3 p.m. CDT, the Hanna’s western eyewall was bringing hurricane conditions to the coast of Texas, the NHC said. “Hanna became a hurricane this morning at 7 a.m. CDT and now has maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. A little more strengthening is possible until it makes landfall during the late afternoon hours, probably around 5 p.m. CDT later today. Landfall looks to be around 50 miles south of Corpus Christi or so,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski said. Even before Hanna’s center reached land, its impacts were being felt in coastal communities. On Saturday afternoon, power outages rose past 20,000 along the coastline, according to PowerOutage.us. Outages are expected to rise throughout the weekend. Some damage to poorly constructed buildings and localized power outages can’t be ruled out after landfall with an AccuWeather Local StormMax of 100-mph wind gusts forecast. Once over land, Hanna will begin to lose wind intensity and should completely unravel Sunday night and Monday as it runs into the mountains of northeastern Mexico. “The highest wind gusts of 80 to 100 mph will be right at the immediate coast near and just north of the center where it comes ashore. But even farther north around Corpus Christi wind gusts around 60 to 70 mph can occur,” Pydynowski said. AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell was on the scene in Padre Island, Texas, about 30 miles south of Corpus Christi, and he reported seeing “pretty angry” Gulf waters as Hanna churned up a powerful storm surge and lashed the shoreline with high winds.
