Tropical Storm Nicholas was moving across the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday and is expected to
strengthen on its way
to the coasts of Texas, Louisiana and northeastern Mexico, where it is forecast to bring heavy rains and cause flooding.
The National Hurricane Center indicates that Nicholas can dump
5 to 10 inches
of rainfall
over parts of the Texas and Louisiana coast
from Sunday afternoon into the week.
He added that in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, rainfall of between 5 and 13 centimeters (2 to 5 inches) is predicted between Sunday and Monday.
The eye of the storm
will pass near the coasts of northeastern Mexico and southern Texas on Monday, hitting southern or central Texas on Monday night or early Tuesday, according to the latest report.
"I ask Texans to follow instructions and warnings from local authorities and to
watch out for heavy rain and flooding
," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement.
The president ordered to enable the necessary resources to attend to any eventuality that happens on the coast.
The Northeast of the country has not yet recovered from the scourge of Ida and now another storm threatens the region
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[More than 40 dead in floods due to historic rains from Storm Ida in the Northeast]
The storm comes about two weeks after Hurricane Ida, which hit Louisiana, killing at least 26 people, destroying homes and leaving thousands of people without water or power.
As of Sunday morning there were still some 140,198 people in the state - 6.3% of the population - without power, according to the state Public Utilities Commission.
The storm is likely to move up the coast and trigger heavy rains for several days, said meteorologist Donald Jones of the National Weather Service in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
"
There could be heavy downpours in southeastern Louisiana where Hurricane Ida impacted
," Bob Henson, a meteorologist at Yale Climate Connections, told the AP agency.
A satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Tropical Storm Nicholas in the Gulf of Mexico on September 12, 2021.
["He hadn't hit like he did this time": Grace leaves at least 8 dead and houses destroyed in Mexico]
At 2 pm the storm was located
about 180 miles northeast of Veracruz
, Mexico, and 310 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Rio Grande.
The Mexican National Meteorological Service issued a warning for the formation of the tropical storm.
Although it is not expected to make landfall in Mexico or escalate to a hurricane, the authorities predicted "heavy to torrential rains over the states of Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Tabasco, and very strong in Puebla" due to a storm in the south and southeast of the country.
The phenomenon arises while Mexico faces the “most difficult week” for Civil Protection, as declared by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, after the floods that
on Tuesday caused 17 deaths in a hospital of the Mexican Institute of Social Security in Hidalgo
, in the center of the country.
In addition, last Wednesday, cyclone Olaf formed in the Pacific, which hit Baja California Sur, in the northwest, as a category 2 hurricane, and left one dead due to a collapse on a highway in Jalisco, in the west.
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[How and when to prepare for a hurricane or tropical storm]
This Sunday, the authorities asked the inhabitants of the states of the Gulf of Mexico and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec "to take extreme precautions."
"The rainfall generated by the
tropical
cyclone
could generate landslides, increase in the levels of rivers and streams, and overflows and floods
in low-lying areas," says the Mexican meteorological service in its latest statement.
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[Biden visits areas of New York and New Jersey hit by Hurricane Ida: "We are going to deal with climate change"]
Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane expert at Colorado State University, noted on Twitter that Nicholas is the 14th storm to be named during the Atlantic season.
Aside from 2021, only four years have had that many storms before September 12: 2005, 2011, 2012 and 2020.
With information from AP and EFE