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Texas drenched by tropical storm | |
(about 7 hours later) | |
Heavy rain has been falling in Texas after Hurricane Humberto, the first hurricane to hit the US Gulf coast in two years, came ashore on Thursday. | |
One person was reported to have been killed and there were fears of flash flooding in areas already inundated in the wettest summer in 100 years. | |
Power was knocked out in some districts by Humberto's 85mph (140km/h) winds. | |
By mid-morning, the hurricane had weakened to a tropical storm and had moved into neighbouring Louisiana. | |
At 1500 GMT, Humberto was 125km (75 miles) west-northwest of Lafayette in Louisiana with winds of 100km (75 miles) per hour, the National Hurricane Center in Miami reported. | |
Humberto had strengthened quickly to a Category One hurricane before making landfall early on Thursday, but then rapidly lost strength. | |
Flooding fears | |
Some 100,000 customers were without electricity in Beaumont and Port Arthur in Texas, a spokesman for Entenergy Texas said. Three oil refineries were also shut down after losing power. | |
No evacuations had been ordered as Humberto neared the coast of Texas. | |
But Texas Governor Rick Perry activated military rescue teams including helicopters and water rescue workers. | |
"Some areas of our state remain saturated by summer floods, and many communities in this storm's projected path are at high risk of dangerous flash flooding," he said. | "Some areas of our state remain saturated by summer floods, and many communities in this storm's projected path are at high risk of dangerous flash flooding," he said. |
At least 40 people have been killed in flooding in Texas this year. | |
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said four to six inches of rain (10-15cm) of rain were expected across much of Louisiana and Mississippi. | |
Humberto was the third hurricane of the 2007 Atlantic storm season. | |
But it was far weaker than the deadly Hurricanes Dean and Felix which both reached Category Five status - the most powerful on the five-point rating scale - before lashing Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico. |
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