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Tropical Storm Alex nears hurricane strength

29 June 2010 20:49 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Tropical Storm Alex approached hurricane strength early Tuesday as it churned off the northwestern coast of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula in the Bay of Campeche, the National Hurricane Center said, APA reports quoting CCN.
Alex was moving faster to the north-northwest, the Hurricane Center said at 8 a.m. ET, noting that the storm now was advancing at 12 miles per hour. At 5 a.m., the storm had been reported moving at 8 miles per hour.
The storm continued to move away from the massive BP oil catastrophe near the Louisiana coast in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
A hurricane warning has been issued for the Gulf Coast from Baffin Bay, Texas, to La Cruz, Mexico. A hurricane warning means that hurricane conditions and tropical storm-force winds are expected in the forecast area within 36 hours.
A tropical storm warning is in place along the Texas coast from Baffin Bay to Port O’Connor.
At 8 a.m. ET, Alex was located about 380 miles southeast of Brownsville, Texas, and had maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour with stronger gusts, the Hurricane Center said. To be classified as a hurricane, a storm must have sustained winds of 74 miles per hour.
The hurricane center’s forecast map shows Alex making landfall sometime Wednesday evening as a Category 1 storm along the northern Gulf Coast of Mexico, south of Brownsville.
On Monday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued a disaster proclamation for 19 counties and ordered the pre-deployment of state resources. The governor’s declaration allows the state to initiate necessary preparedness efforts, such as pre-deploying resources to ensure local communities are ready to respond to disasters.
The governor’s order puts up to 2,500 National Guard personnel, eight UH-60 helicopters and three C-130 aircraft on standby for rapid deployment as needed, Perry’s office said in a statement.