Tropical Storm Hermine Brings Heavy Rains, Wind to South Texas

Tropical Storm Hermine blew into the border region between Texas and Mexico late Monday night, landing in Northeast Mexico and crossing into Texas early Tuesday morning, bringing with it 60 mph winds, heavy rains and flooding.

Like many hurricanes and tropical storms before it, including Hurricane Alex on June 30, Hermine seemed drawn to the mouth of the Rio Grande River. By 10 a.m. CDT, the storm was about 60 miles northwest of Corpus Christi, Texas, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, the National Hurricane Center reported.

A tropical storm warning had been lifted from south of Baffin Bay along the Texas coast but remained in effect from Baffin Bay to Port O’Connor.

The storm is expected to move in a north northwesterly direction up through Central Texas. Heavy rains had already begun as far north as Austin by 9 a.m.

The NHC said Hermine was likely to become a tropical depression later in the day on Sept. 7.

Heavy rains are expected from the middle Texas coast northward. The remains of Hermine and the accompanying rain will likely travel northeastward across eastern Oklahoma, into Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri. Flash flooding and isolated tornadoes are possible.

Hermine is the eighth tropical storm of the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane season. No damage was reported to U.S. or Mexican oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the storm, according to Reuters.