President Barack Obama issued an emergency declaration for Texas

[tabatha]

MIAMI — Tropical Storm Alex was expected to strengthen into the first hurricane of the Atlantic season as it churned northwest across the southwest Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday.

The NHC expects Alex, packing winds of about 70 miles per hour and located about 290 miles southeast of Brownsville, Texas, to hit just south of the Texas-Mexico border late Wednesday.

Computer tracking models were still mostly in agreement late Tuesday, with seven out of eight showing the storm making landfall south of the Texas-Mexico border.

Still, President Barack Obama issued an emergency declaration for Texas, allowing coordination by the Federal Emergency Management Agency with state and local response efforts.

And federal authorities said oil and gas operators in the Gulf were beginning to evacuate platforms and rigs in the storm's path — which would take it far southwest of the region affected by the BP spill.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement said that, based on reports Tuesday morning, 28 of 634 manned production platforms and three of 51 drilling rigs have been evacuated. The bureau estimated that nearly one-quarter of the Gulf's oil production and more than 9 percent of its natural gas production had been halted.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37992214

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Oh, that. I was hoping it was "Stop being so fucking stupid with textbooks or leave the union".

[tabatha]

2. Yep, that would be good, too.

[DJ13]

3. !

:spray:

:thumbsup:

[Warpy]

4. I've been reading the Yucatan papers

and mostly what they got was a wet Willie, lots of street flooding, some rural roads washed out, and a waterfall down one of the main drags in Merida full of kids having a blast.

Let's hope it doesn't intensify much. Let's hope the rest of them all go out to see east of North America.

Most of all, send some good vibes to the desert southwest so that the remnants will rain themselves out over us. We've been very, very dry this spring.