Hurricane Hanna Update: Storm Weakens As It Dumps Rain On Texas, Mexico

Hurricane Hanna made landfall Saturday as a Category 1 storm. By Sunday morning, Hanna weakened to a tropical storm, while still posing a major threat with significant rain and flash flooding in southern Texas and northern Mexico.

According to a recent National Hurricane Center (NHC) advisory, as of Sunday, Hanna was moving southwest at approximately 9 mph, kicking up gusts of over 50 mph wind. The advisory put the storm roughly 55 miles west of McAllen, a Texas city just over the border from Reynosa, Mexico, and over 150 miles southwest from Corpus Christi.

Hanna is currently forecast to continue moving southwest across central Mexico. A tropical storm warning remains in effect from Baffin Bay, Texas, to Barra el Mezquital, Mexico. It is expected to drop 6-12 inches of rain on Texas and Mexico by Sunday night.

“Any hurricane is an enormous challenge,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference Saturday. “This challenge is complicated and made even more severe, seeing that it is sweeping through an area that is the most challenged area in the state for COVID-19.”

Abbott has issued disaster declarations in 32 counties, while also submitting a request for a federal emergency disaster declaration.

In addition to Hanna, the NHC is also tracking another low-pressure system developing in the Atlantic Ocean with the potential to develop. The system is currently located roughly 1,000 miles southwest of Cabo Verde, a chain of islands off the western coast of Africa, and is moving west a around 20 mph on a course to eventually reach the Caribbean. The NHC gave the system a 60% of developing into a tropical depression in the next 48 hours and 90% within the next five days.