Hurricane Alex ripped off roofs, flooded streets and forced thousands of people to flee coastal fishing villages today as it pushed into northern Mexico after making landfall as a powerful Category 2 storm.

A top US government scientist has performed a U-turn on climate change, saying global warming is not responsible for the recent increase in Atlantic hurricanes.

Hospital and nursing home patients were evacuated and as many as one million others were ordered to clear out along the Gulf Coast today as Hurricane Rita intensified into a Category 4 storm with 140mph winds that could batter Texas and bring more misery to New Orleans by the weekend.