Hurricane Alex makes landfall 110 miles south of Brownsville

McALLEN — Hurricane Alex roared ashore about 110 miles south of Brownsville shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday, bringing Category 2 winds, major street flooding in parts of Hidalgo and Cameron counties and a storm surge that inundated streets in Port Isabel.

The hurricane also spawned several tornadoes throughout the Rio Grande Valley and led to impassable streets in portions of Weslaco and widespread power outages in Brownsville. As much as 4-7 inches of rain had fallen throughout the Valley throughout the day with feeder bands expected to drench the area until about 5 a.m. Thursday morning.

But for the most part, the Valley was spared the brunt of the storm, despite forecasts earlier in the week that called for the hurricane to make landfall near the mouth of the Rio Grande, said Greg Flatt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Brownsville. The storm was expected to weaken throughout Wednesday night and mostly dissipate by the end of the day Thursday.

“There’s been times where this storm was predicted to be right over us, which would have been a lot worse,” Flatt said. “We were hoping for the best, and it worked out pretty good for the Valley.”

More than 850 people sought refuge in the more than a dozen storm shelters throughout Hidalgo County, said Cari Lambrecht, the county’s public information officer. Officials at the county’s Emergency Operations Center had heard reports throughout the night of heavy rains, but no massive flooding was visible in most areas.

Response crews were preparing to survey the damage as soon as the worst of the storm passed by Thursday morning.

Law enforcement in the county’s cities also reported no major incidents.

In McAllen, firefighters responded to a tractor-trailer that had jackknifed on eastbound Expressway 83 near the Jackson Avenue exit. The cab was partially hanging from the expressway.

A spokesman for the city of McAllen said the crash happened when the semitrailer collided with a Ford Ranger, sending the pickup truck into the guardrail and dumping chunks of concrete off the elevated expressway. Three people were taken to an area hospital with injuries that were deemed not life-threatening.

Firefighters stood in pouring rain as drivers were diverted off the expressway and onto the frontage road. A crane was en route to move the wreckage from the roadway and normal traffic flow was expected to resume overnight.

Rain and wind gusts made many streets impassable.

The Texas Department of Transportation has reported many roads as flooded.

Kansas Road is closed between Tower Road and Farm-to-Market Road 1423 in Alamo, and U.S. 83 Eastbound Frontage Road is flooded but drivable between Inspiration Road and Bentsen Palm Drive in Palmview.

The Queen Isabella Memorial Bridge linking South Padre Island and mainland Port Isabel remains closed because of high winds.

Electric utility AEP Texas was reporting late Wednesday night that 400 customers in Cameron County and 630 in Hidalgo County were without power, company spokesman Frank Espinoza said.

“We have at this point no large-concentration outages,” he said. ”These numbers are scattered.”

Crews were continuing to attend to the customers without power. However, much more will be done after the storm is over, Espinoza said.

In McAllen, 5.29 inches of rain had fallen throughout the day Wednesday. Most areas of Brownsville reported more than 6 inches of rain.

A tornado watch has been issued for Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Willacy counties until 4 a.m. Thursday

But the worst of the storm is over, said Flatt, the National Weather Service meteorologist. Some heavy feeder bands are expected remain until Thursday morning.

“There will be heavy rains until about 5 a.m.,” he said. “It will decrease during the day on Thursday and completely end by late Thursday.”

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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424. Lindsay Machak covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4462.