Updated Jul. 29, 2020 12:35 PM
Seven heads peeked out from the large red tub that floated in the floodwaters of Hanna. On Sunday, the puppies, no bigger than a Jack Russel at most, sat in their personal ark with their owners nearby. The smallest of them looked out from a bucket within the tub, its front legs perched on the ledge after having just survived the first hurricane of the Atlantic season.
Hanna made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on Padre Island, Texas, on July 25, bringing lashing winds and dangerous floodwaters before pushing inland across the Mexico-United States border on Sunday. By the time it had crossed over, Hanna had been downgraded to a tropical depression with sustained winds around 50 mph. However, the storm still packed a punch in northeastern Mexico.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP
Hundreds of military personnel were deployed to assist in evacuating 410 residents due to flooding in Reynosa, a city in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, late Sunday.
The parents of Betty Vaquera Escandon who lived in Reynosa had "lost everything" by the time the storm had rolled through, she told Storyful. However, the shining light in the time of turmoil for the family was their puppies who had survived the storm.
Escandon videotaped her parents, who had "managed to get their babies out."
"I [recorded the video] more than anything because it gave me a lot of emotion and tenderness to see my parents with all the puppies," Escandon said.
Four people had gone missing in Mexico, one in Topo Chico, Nuevo Leon, and three in Reynosa, according to The Associated Press. NPR reports those missing in Reynosa were children who had fallen from a tree into the water.
At least three people were killed in the storm, all in Mexico. A woman and a 7-year-old girl were found Monday near Monterrey after the van they were in ran out of gas and was swept away by the current of an overflowing tributary, according to NPR. At least one woman died in Reynosa, and another 22 people were in shelters in the city, according to a statement from the Security and Civil Protection agency.
A maternity hospital in Reynosa was damaged by heavy rain, leading to the water needing to be pumped out, the AP reported. Some of the patients had to be moved to higher floors, and a few were evacuated to other hospitals, Pedro Granados, director of civil protections for Tamaulipas state, said.
Photos of the town showed floodwaters that had risen nearly to the top of car tires, pouring into homes and destroying personal belongings. Hanna had brought 6 to 8 inches of rainfall to Reynosa. Two hours away, Monterrey, Mexico, received 7.86 inches of rain, 7.54 inches of which fell on Sunday, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Samuhel.
"Texas and Mexico are lucky that the impacts from Hanna were not worse," Samuhel said.
Hanna did what many tropical systems have done over the Gulf of Mexico, Samuhel continued, stating it rapidly developed from a tropical storm into a hurricane while fueled by the warm, 80- to 90-degree water.
"This was high-octane gasoline for the engine that was Hurricane Hanna," Samuhel said. "To give you an idea of how quickly Hanna strengthened, it had 50-mph sustained winds at 7 p.m. CDT Friday, July 24. Then by 7 a.m. CDT the next morning, it was a hurricane with 75-mph winds!"
The storm made landfall with 90-mph sustained winds around 5 p.m. CDT on Saturday, July 25.
Hanna has since unraveled in the mountains of northeastern Mexico, but Samuhel warned there will be the normal scattering of thunderstorms over the next few days that could cause issues in the hardest-hit areas.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
No comments:
Post a Comment