Hanna Was Just a Tropical Storm

Tropical Storm Hanna was upgraded to a hurricane Saturday, moving toward the Texas coast and threatening to bring heavy rain, storm surge, and possible tornadoes to a part of the country trying to cope with a surge in coronavirus cases, the AP reports. The storm, which is the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, was expected to make landfall Saturday afternoon or evening south of Corpus Christi, the US National Hurricane Center said Saturday morning. It had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph and was centered about 100 miles east-southeast of Corpus Christi and was moving west at 9 mph. Many parts of Texas, including the area where Hanna is expected to come ashore, have been dealing with a spike in coronavirus cases in recent weeks.

But local officials said they were prepared for whatever the storm may bring: "And don't feel like since we've been fighting COVID for five months, that we're out of energy or we're out of gas. We're not," Corpus Christi Mayor Joe McComb said Friday. "We can do these two things together and we're going to win both of them." Corpus Christi is in Nueces County, where health officials revealed that 85 infants recently tested positive with COVID-19. Farther south in Cameron County, which borders Mexico, more than 300 confirmed new cases have been reported almost daily for the past two weeks. Officials reminded residents to wear masks if they needed to get supplies before the storm arrives or if they have to shelter with neighbors because of flooding. (Read about Hurricane Douglas.)