Storm gains strength in Gulf of Mexico

Tropical Storm Alex is gaining strength as it swirls across the Gulf of Mexico today on a path towards Mexico’s north-eastern coast.

The storm could have strengthened to a hurricane by tomorrow and its heavy rains are expected to begin lashing the Mexican states of Tamaulipas or Veracruz around midweek, according to the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami.

It is currently on a course well clear of the massive oil spill from the BP deepwater rig in the Gulf.

The storm’s heavy rains caused flooding and mudslides that left at least four people dead in Central America over the weekend, though Belize and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula appeared largely unscathed.

It made landfall in Belize on Saturday night with winds at 60mph. But it weakened into a depression on Sunday as it crossed the Yucatan Peninsula. Once over the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Alex quickly grew back into a tropical storm with winds of up to 45mph. The hurricane centre said it will keep strengthening over the coming days.

The centre said rains from Alex will keep falling on southern Mexico and Guatemala until Tuesday and warned of life-threatening floods and mudslides.

The heavy rains prompted a landslide in north-western Guatemala that dislodged a large rock outcropping, killing two men who had taken shelter from the storm, according to the national disaster response agency.

In El Salvador, civil protection chief Jorge Melendez said two people were swept away by rivers that burst their banks. About 500 people were evacuated from their homes.

Authorities in Guatemala and Belize are keeping an eye on rising river levels. One bridge in western Belize was swamped entirely, cutting off a remote Mennonite community.

Hundreds of Belize residents and tourists who had fled low-lying islands for shelters on the mainland began returning yesterday.

The country apparently avoided major damage, and emergency co-ordinator Noreen Fairweather said on national radio that there were no reports of injuries.

There were no immediate reports of damage to Mexico’s resort-studded Caribbean coast. Now all eyes are on the Gulf of Mexico.

When Alex became the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, officials immediately worried what effect it could have on efforts to contain the millions of gallons of crude spewing into the north-eastern part of the Gulf.

A cap has been placed over the blown-out undersea well, directing some of the oil to a surface ship where it is being collected or burned. Other ships are drilling two relief wells, projected to be done by August, which are considered the best hope to stop the leak.

For the time being, the storm appears likely to miss the oil-slicked region and make landfall in Mexico, but meteorologists warned that a storm’s track can quickly change.