Hurricane Alex threw the rain in the Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday, but residents and officials began to relax as the Category 1 storm brought down the deep south of the US-Mexican border.Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos said Wednesday that Brownsville and surrounding areas "dodged a potentially violent storm. But the flooding is still concerned with Alex is expected to make landfall later than Wednesday.
Mexico was supposed to take a hit Alex, but forecasters said some parts of the deep south Texas can get at least 15 inches of rain.
At least 70 residents have already taken shelter in the Brownsville High School. Government officials say they can close the dam in South Padre Island, if conditions were bad enough.
Governor Rick Perry said that his greatest concern from Hurricane Alex floods, but he promised the government is ready to storm this summer, as well as any impact from the spill of the Persian Gulf.
Engineers monitor the dam in south Texas as the storm approaches the area. If a hurricane hit the Gulf Coast states, barrier islands would protect the wetlands from serious injuries, said the land commissioner Jerry Patterson.
Perry and Patterson spoke with reporters Wednesday at a warehouse equipped with emergency response equipment in La Porte, a suburb of Houston on Galveston Bay.
"Experience has taught us to pray for the best and prepare for the worst," said Perry. "We are ready to cope with the storm and its consequences."
The state has five stores along the Gulf Coast are equipped with a boom, portable trailer command center, shallow boats, four-wheel-drive small cars and other goods. The state sent a significant portion of its stock boom in Louisiana, but the manufacturers are doing more now, says Patterson.
Researchers are also monitoring buoy system, which records the Gulf water direction and speed every half hour. This information will determine where the oil could spread if it approaches Texas, as tar balls on the beach, Patterson said.
"We practiced and practiced and tested our plans," he said.
