Sudden storm brings 130km/h winds

HUMBERTO, the first hurricane to hit the US in two years, sneaked up on south Texas and Louisiana overnight and crashed ashore yesterday with heavy rains and 80mph (129km/h) winds, killing at least one person.

The system rapidly became a Category 1 hurricane, then weakened to a tropical storm by midmorning and bore into central Louisiana. Roads flooded and power was out, but the greatest concern was heavy rain falling in areas already inundated by a wet summer.

Humberto didn’t exist until late on Wednesday afternoon, and wasn’t even a tropical storm until midday, strengthening from a tropical depression with 55km/h winds to a hurricane with 135km/h winds in just 18 hours, senior hurricane specialist James Franklin said at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.