Sharjah24 – Reuters: Tropical Storm Nicholas churned through the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday headed for an expected landfall along the Texas shoreline by late Monday or early Tuesday, two weeks after Hurricane Ida lashed coastal areas of neighboring Louisiana.
A storm-surge warning was posted on Sunday for a 70-mile (113-km) stretch of the South Texas coast, from Port Aransas to Matagorda Bay, forecasting an immediate, life-threatening flood danger from high surf driven inland ahead of Nicholas.
Inundation as high as 5 feet (1.5 m) was possible in some places at high tide, according to the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Nicholas, the 14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, also was expected to unleash heavy rainfall across Texas, of up to 20 inches (51 cm) in scattered areas, from Sunday through the middle of the week, the NHC said in its latest advisory.
Packing maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph) on Sunday afternoon, Nicholas was on track to scrape the Gulf Coast of Texas, home to many oil refineries and chemical plants, during the day on Monday, before making landfall that night or early the following day, the NHC said.
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