Edouard hits Texas coast, weakens

6:46a.m. 6th August 2008

| By Juan Lozano

Tropical Storm Edouard has hit the Texas Gulf coast east of Galveston with strong winds and heavy rain, but did little more than soak the travellers who came to relax on the tourist town's beaches.

The storm made landfall on Tuesday east of Galveston and west of the Louisiana border, between the small coastal town of High Island and Sabine Pass, and was weakening as it headed inland.

Though forecasters had feared it could become a hurricane and both Texas and Louisiana had made emergency preparations, winds never reached hurricane strength of 120km/h. No major damage was reported.

The National Hurricane Centre in Miami said the storm was expected to drop in strength by early Wednesday to a tropical depression, meaning top sustained winds of less than 63km/h. At 1800 GMT (0400 AEST Wednesday) the storm's centre was about 55km east of Houston and heading slowly west-northwest towards central Texas. Windspeeds had dropped from near 105km/h when it hit land to about 80km/h.

In Galveston, a few surfers were in the water and some people were riding bikes at the beach as the rains approached.

Edouard skirted the Louisiana coast on its way to Texas, raising tides and pushing water into bayous and yards. Residents of low-lying areas south of the Intracoastal Waterway in Cameron were ordered to evacuate Monday but were expected to be able to return later on Tuesday. Parish officials have been quick to order evacuations ahead of storms since Hurricane Audrey in 1957 killed about 500 people in Cameron.

Houston's two major airports, Hobby and Bush International, were operating on Tuesday morning, though flights were delayed anywhere from 30 minutes to five hours.

The storm hit at the height of tourist season in Galveston, but Edouard did not bring the 160km/h winds that punished the Texas tourist hotspot of South Padre Island when Hurricane Dolly tore off roofs and knocked down signs last month July 23.

The Texas coast counts on tourism this time of year. About 50 million visitors to the Texas coast spent about $US15 billion ($A16.15 billion) in 2006.

Since Dolly, South Padre has regained electric power but its four biggest full-service hotels remain closed as well as the convention centre in the community about 420km down the coast from Galveston.

Edouard did prompt offshore oil and gas companies to evacuate a few of the 717 manned platforms and 125 operating rigs in the Gulf.

But Shell Oil said the storm had no effect on its offshore operations and it would begin returning evacuated workers on Tuesday.