Hurricane Nicholas LIVE Tropical storm weakens but leaves 450,000 homes in Texas without energy Houston | Mexico | Tamaulipas | Pobla | Veracruz | Texas | Louisiana | NHC | United States VIDEO | WORLD

Tropical Storm Nicholas weakened on Tuesday as it advanced inland by Texas then whipping up the Houston area like a hurricane, leaving nearly half a million homes without electricity and causing torrential rains in that area of ​​the United States over the Gulf.

LIVE LIVE THE TRACK OF THE TROPICAL STORM NICHOLAS

At 15:00 GMT, the maximum sustained storm winds had been reduced to 75 miles per hour, with stronger gusts, and 125 to 250 millimeters of rain were expected to fall on the coast of Texas and Louisiana, said the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

WATCH: Hurricane Ida: Nearly 50 dead after brutal flooding in and around New York PHOTOS AND VIDEOS

However, the NHC warned that while it is predicted that Nicolau will degrade to tropical depression Tuesday night, there could be isolated cases of more than 500 millimeters of rain in southern parts of Louisiana, Already hit days ago by Hurricane Ida.

“Sudden, potentially deadly floods are expected in southern parts of the country over the next few days“, Warned the NHC.

Nicolau, Which gained Category 1 hurricane strength in the Gulf of Mexico with sustained maximum winds of 120 km / h, made landfall in Texas around 5:30 GMT.

Electricity provider CenterPoint reported that more than 450,000 customers in the area ran out of energy on Tuesday morning, although the casualties were less than 380,000 as of late in the morning.

Aside from widespread blackouts, Houston, With 2.3 million inhabitants and devastated by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, largely dodged the blow of Nicolau.

“It could have been much worse,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said at an emergency operations meeting, noting that so far there have been no storm-related deaths in the area.

“I think we did pretty well”, He added.

cyclonic sea

Perhaps aware of the damage four years earlier, Turner put the city on high alert on Monday, erecting barricades, activating an emergency management office, closing the busy port’s navigation channel and warning residents to take precautions. additional security.

At Surfside Beach, about 100 miles south of Houston, Nicholas blew up the roofs of several homes and caused a cyclonic storm, leaving the community without electricity.

“It hit us pretty hard,” Mayor Gregg Bisso told AFP. “We are cleaning to reopen the roads”, He explained, and added: “We don’t let anyone in if they’re not a resident.”

Videos shared on social media showed violent winds and heavy rains, even causing the roof of a Citgo gas station to collapse.

About 400 flights in and out of Houston were canceled, but the city’s airports were due to resume full service later on Tuesday, according to authorities.

State of emergency

On Monday night, President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, authorizing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate all efforts. of disaster relief.

Texas it is no stranger to hurricanes, but scientists warn that climate change is making storms more powerful, posing an increasing risk to coastal communities.

The coasts are already suffering from floods aggravated by rising sea levels.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had urged residents to take precautions and “be alert” to the weather.

On Tuesday, he said emergency shelters had been set up for residents affected by Nicolau.

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