Tropical Storm Dolly churned toward southern Texas late on Monday, and forecasters said they expected it to grow into a hurricane before hitting land near the Mexican border later this week.
The storm, with sustained winds of nearly 85km/h, emerged from the Yucatan Peninsula over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. A hurricane watch was issued for the southern Texas coast, the United States National Hurricane Centre said.
At 3am GMT on Tuesday, Dolly was 695km south-east of Corpus Christi, Texas. It was due to hit land on Wednesday near the border town of Brownsville, Texas, well away from sensitive offshore drilling rigs and production platforms.
The US has largely escaped the past two Atlantic hurricane seasons, with just one hurricane — Humberto in November 2007 — making landfall on its coasts. But it was pummelled in 2004 and 2005, when a series of powerful hurricanes, including the catastrophic Katrina, ravaged Florida and the US Gulf Coast.
Concerns that Dolly could affect oil production from the Gulf of Mexico helped push crude futures up about $2 a barrel on Monday, although dealers said Dolly appeared likely to pass south and west of the biggest concentration of US platforms.
US forecasters expect Dolly to hit the shore as a category-one hurricane with wind speeds up to 139km/h — the weakest category — as it gathers energy from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
In Texas, Governor Rick Perry put 1 200 National Guard troops on alert, and told citizens to take precautions, though no mandatory evacuations were ordered.
”If the time comes where we do believe that we need to brace for impact from the storm, Texas will be ready,” said Krista Pfeiffer, Perry’s press secretary. About 250 buses were standing by in San Antonio for quick evacuations, Pfeiffer said.
The advancing storm turned emergency supplies such as generators, plywood and sandbags into hot items. ”We’re seeing plywood, a lot of plywood, a lot of anchors, a lot of tarps, sandbags,” said Sergio Alonzo, who manages Pico Ace Hardware, a home supply store on South Padre Island.
Mexico on alert
In Mexico, Dolly dumped rain on the popular resort of Cancun in the Yucatan Peninsula, but no major damage was reported.
The north-eastern state of Tamaulipas on Mexico’s Gulf Coast issued a hurricane warning and began preparing dozens of buildings to receive possible evacuees.
But residents on Playa Bagdad beach, 38km east of the border city of Matamoros, were relaxed and carried on business as usual.
”Nothing is going to happen beyond some surf and lots of water and, to be honest, it is a lot of trouble to get all the stuff out,” said Guillermina Zamudio (45) as she weighed some fish in a tiny stand. She said she would not pack up her stall.
Fishermen in the area were quietly repairing their nets or pulling their boats from the water amid clear skies and warm weather.
Shell and Chevron began flying workers from platforms in the western Gulf ahead of the storm, but Mexico’s state oil company Pemex said its production was unlikely to be hit.
”As of now there are no changes in the routine activities at Pemex platforms. The course of the storm is passing far away from the installations,” said Javier Delgado, a local spokesperson for Pemex on Mexico’s coast. — Reuters