Atlantic’s first hurricane of season builds strength
HOUSTON – The tropical weather season revved up Thursday as the Atlantic’s first hurricane formed and quickly strengthened, and as Tropical Storm Erin’s remnants soaked rain-weary Texas, snarling rush-hour traffic and killing at least two people.
Even as they fetched dozens of stranded drivers, authorities in Houston and San Antonio looked over their shoulders at Hurricane Dean, a Category 2 storm building in the Atlantic as it neared islands in the eastern Caribbean. Hurricane warnings were issued for some islands, and a tropical storm warning was issued for the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
The thunderstorms from Erin brought 7 inches of rain to parts of San Antonio and Houston, where one person died and another was injured when the waterlogged roof of a storage unit outside a grocery store collapsed, Fire Chief Omero Longoria said. The National Hurricane Center said 10 inches of rain was possible in some areas.
In San Antonio, a man was swept away after apparently getting out of his vehicle in flood water, a police spokeswoman said. Three people died in a head-on collision on a rainy highway in Comal County.
The flooding “has been a good training session, if you will,” as officials track Dean’s progress, said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, the top elected official in the county that surrounds Houston.
In the Atlantic, Dean’s top sustained winds at 5 p.m. EDT were 100 mph, up from 75 mph earlier in the day. Centered about 210 miles east-northeast of Barbados, it was moving west at around 23 mph, and its center should approach the Lesser Antilles today.
“It’s so far out, but it’s not too early to start preparing,” said Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
The Caribbean islands of Dominica and St. Lucia issued hurricane warnings as Dean approached. Hurricane watches were issued for Martinique and Guadeloupe and its dependencies. About 2 to 5 inches of rain was expected, with mountainous areas getting up to 7 inches.
Tropical storm warnings were issued for Anguilla, Antigua; Barbados; Barbuda; Grenada and its dependencies; Monserrat; Nevis; Saba; St. Eustatius; St. Kitts; St. Vincent and the Grenadines; and St. Maarten. A tropical storm watch was issued for part of the southern coast of the Dominican Republic. A warning means storm conditions are expected within 24 hours, a watch means 36 hours.