Tropical Storm Don has little area impact

McALLEN — In Hidalgo County, a potential rain event turned mostly into a non-event.

Tropical Storm Don blew ashore Friday in South Texas, bringing much-needed rain — but little else — to portions of the Rio Grande Valley. By 8:30 p.m., when the dissipating storm was just beginning to move inland over northern Kenedy County [cq], the National Hurricane Center was already planning to downgrade it to a tropical depression, hours ahead of when the warnings were originally scheduled to lapse.

“It looks like Don is pretty quickly falling apart,” said Tim Speece, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Brownsville.

In coastal areas, wind speeds reached 25 to 30 mph, leaving about a half inch to one inch of rain on portions of Cameron County. But Hidalgo County saw even less of an impact, with the McAllen airport registering less than half an inch of rainfall, far less than the projected 2 to 3 inches. There was a potential for leftover rainfall throughout the night, Speece said, but rainfall totals were lower than initially thought as the fast-moving storm headed west.

Some scattered showers are expected today but will not be as heavy as what had been forecast for Friday. There’s a 40 percent chance of showers or thunderstorms.

Barry Goldsmith, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Brownsville, said a combination of a dry air loft, a northerly wind shear tilting of the system a bit, and the cooler waters near the shore helped cause Don to fizzle out.

"We are going to have to look into all the whys this happened. It got really close and then just poofed out," Goldsmith said. "Had it been nighttime with the land being cooler than the water, it would have survived and some of the heavy rain would have made it here, but the timing was off."

By 6:30 p.m., with the storm winding down without major incident, Hidalgo County closed its emergency management center but planned to monitor the storm overnight. Emergency management coordinator Oscar Montoya said the storm’s quick dissipation was the “kind of thing you learn to live with by living on the coast.” But he said the storm’s arrival allowed the county’s emergency response and precinct crews to practice storm preparations, ensure equipment was ready for the next storm and clear out debris from area drainage ditches.

“We’re hoping we don’t get anything else,” Montoya said Friday evening. “We would just like to have a little rain.”

But Hidalgo County Judge Ramon Garcia said the storm reinforces the county’s need to fix an inadequate drainage system. Through the first two months of the Atlantic hurricane season, two of the four named storms have skirted the Valley, first with Tropical Storm Arlene and now with Don.

Hidalgo County formed a drainage committee this month to update its master drainage plan for the first time since 1997. The county’s drainage system is not adequate for a large hurricane or even a small storm that hangs over the area with rainfall over an extended period, Garcia said, adding that the county “cannot be depending on luck” for future storms.

“It’s another one of our close calls,” Garcia said. “Thankfully, it’s not a hurricane, and it’s not going to hit us.”

CAMERON COUNTY

In preparation for Don’s arrival at the South Texas coastline, Cameron County Judge Carlos H. Cascos asked for a voluntary evacuation of all high-profile vehicles from the Isla Blanca and Andy Bowie Parks Friday morning.

He made the request because high winds were predicted.

Cascos also ordered the closing of county beach accesses No. 5 and No. 6 on the north end of the Island, as well as the closing of Boca Chica beach due to high tides and dangerous conditions.

The owners of high-profile vehicles appeared to be heeding Cascos’ request Friday morning, as long lines were spotted on the Queen Isabella Memorial Bridge trying to leave the Island.

The U.S. Coast Guard closed the Port of Brownsville as a precautionary measure.

Earlier in the day, residents from both the northern and southern parts of the county visited precinct warehouses to collect sandbags.

Although traffic was slow in the morning, it picked up later in the afternoon as more people learned of the availability of the sandbags.

Commissioner Sofia C. Benavides was at the Precinct 1 Warehouse Friday morning, where she said traffic was steady. Public Works crews began preparing additional sandbags on Monday in case Don brought rain to the area.

Commissioner David Garza said traffic also had been slow Friday morning at the Precinct 3 Warehouse located on FM 510, but he anticipated an increase later in the afternoon.

Garza said county workers had already cleaned out the ditches in the areas prone to flooding and had mowed adjacent grass.

"We’ve done a major clean up of tires," Garza added. "We are as prepared as you can get for an event for this."

There were reports Friday evening of widespread short-lived power outages. An AEP-Texas spokesman said that at one time, there were 120 power outages that lasted 15 minutes or less.

Forecasters said Don could drop 3 to 5 inches of rain, with 7 inches possible in localized areas, and there could be periods of zero visibility during the heaviest downpours.

“Think of Don as one big thunderstorm,” Goldsmith said Friday, describing Don as a “short-lived storm” that would be “quick, fast, and over.”

Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and legislative issues for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.

The Brownsville Herald and Valley Morning Star contributed to this article.