Storm Hermine moves into Texas

TROPICAL Storm Hermine headed into south Texas yesterday after dumping heavy rain onto northeastern Mexico near the Texas border, a region still recovering from Hurricane Alex's visit in June.

Hermine, the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, was expected to weaken as it moved north through Texas to Oklahoma at about 28kph, the National Hurricane Center said in its 4am report.

The storm was 105km southwest of Corpus Christi, Texas, and a tropical storm warning was in effect from the mouth of the Rio Grande River to Port O'Connor, Texas.

Hermine lashed Texas with rain and winds of 85kph but forecasters said it was expected to weaken to a tropical depression over the next 48 hours.

Its tropical storm force winds extended 165km and gusts of up to 117kph were reported.

"The center of Hermine moved through the Rio Grande Valley earlier this morning and produced sustained tropical storm force winds and gusts to near hurricane force at several reporting sites," the Miami-based hurricane center said. Authorities in Mexico's Tamaulipas state where the storm made landfall on Monday evacuated 3,000 people from high-risk areas but had no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The storm warning was canceled by early Tuesday for Mexico.

The storm's forecast path kept it away from major oil and natural gas installations in the Gulf of Mexico, and energy companies said there had been no affect on their operations.

The Miami-based hurricane center warned the storm could dump heavy rain of 4 to 8 inches on its path through Texas to Oklahoma and would pack a 0.75-to-1.25-m storm surge that could cause deadly flash flooding and mudslides. Hermine made landfall at about 8:30pm around 65 km south of the Texas border city of Brownsville.Reuters