Two die as hurricane Claudette hits Texas

At least two people have been killed as Hurricane Claudette swept into Texas with winds reaching more than 98mph.

A 33-year-old woman and a 13-year-old boy were killed by falling tree branches, while the Coast Guard managed to save two men whose 92ft shrimping boat sank of the Gulf Coast.

“The windows are flexing, it’s howling and I am wondering what I’m doing here,” said Ed Conaway, an employee at a nuclear power plant in Wadsworth close to where Claudette made its landfall.

It was the first hurricane of the Atlantic storm season, but Claudette was downgraded to a tropical storm late yesterday as it moved north and windspeeds began to drop.

Oil and natural gas companies quickly began sending hundreds of workers back out to production platforms and drilling rigs in the Gulf that had been evacuated as the storm swept across the huge basin.

Texas state governor Rick Perry signed a disaster relief proclamation and authorised the National Guard to help with rescue and recovery.

“We have got a lot of clean-up to do,” said Greg Westmoreland, a judge in Matagorda County.