translated from Spanish: Hurricane Hanna hits Texas complicated by uptick in COVID-19 cases

Degraded to a tropical storm, Hanna passed over the U.S.-Mexico border with winds of nearly 85 kilometers per hour (50 miles per hour), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported. It is expected to yield up to 45 centimeters (18 inches) of rain in parts of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico.Border communities whose health systems were already overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases received casualties, and even some patients had to be moved by air to larger cities. Coastal states battled this year to adjust their hurricane emergency plans to take the virus into account, and Hanna was the first major test. Governor Greg Abbott said Saturday that some people who needed shelter were housed in hotel rooms to keep them separate from others. The first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic Ocean season hit the mainland as a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday afternoon with winds of 145 km/h (90 mph) not far from Port Mansfield, located 210 kilometers (130 miles) south of Corpus Christi.Mean the states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León, in northeastern Mexico, took precautions prior to the arrival of the storm. Tamaulipas disinfected the shelters to try to prevent a spread of COVID-19, authorities said. In the Mexican city of Matamoros, bordering Brownsville, Texas, volunteers closely monitored Hanna as the rains hit tents at a refugee camp that houses some 1,300 asylum seekers, including newborns and the elderly. They have waited for months for their court appointments under U.S. policy that asks them to wait for their cases in Mexico.In the Pacific Ocean, meanwhile, Hurricane Douglas approached Hawaii over the weekend.

Original source in Spanish