Hurricane heads toward Gulf Coast

The Associated Press

MATAMOROS, Mexico -- The first Atlantic hurricane this year gathered strength Saturday and churned through the Gulf of Mexico towards the Texas-Mexico border with 120-mph winds.

Forecasters said Hurricane Bret had developed into a Class 3 hurricane and could strengthen further before making an expected landfall sometime today near Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico, twin cities on the border. Hurricanes are categorized in five classes, with the fifth being the strongest.

"People should already be making preparations," said Roberto Molleda, a meteorologist with the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

At 6 p.m. CDT, Hurricane Bret was located about 175 miles southeast of Brownsville, Texas, and had quickened its forward motion to about 14 mph from a previous average of about 8 mph, but the center said that pace could slacken as the storm takes a turn to the northwest over the next 24 hours, the center reported.

"Our forecast has the center of the eye of the hurricane coming ashore right at the Texas-Mexico border" sometime today, Molleda said.

Matamoros Mayor Homero Zamora Ayala declared a state of alert for the city's 360,000 residents. City Attorney General Juan Martin Reina said 22 buses had been sent to bring people from beach communities to a shelter.

Hurricane warnings were already in effect for a 160-mile stretch of Mexico's northern Gulf coast from Matamoros south to La Pesca, and a 110-mile stretch of Texas coast from the border north to Baffin Bay, the Hurricane Center reported.

Hurricane Bret could be the first major hurricane to hit the area since Gilbert in 1988.

As it took aim at Texas' lower coast, officials of South Padre Island ordered the 2,100 residents to pack and leave by sunup today, Mayor Ed Cyganiewicz said.

Residents of Port Isabel, on the mainland side of the causeway to the low-lying barrier island, were told to evacuate by morning.

Cameron County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa said, "If residents don't want to leave, then we hand out little body tags."

Copyright 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.