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First tropical storm warning of hurricane season issued as coastal Texas braces for possible flooding
The first tropical storm warning of this year’s hurricane season was issued early Tuesday, as coastal communities in southern Texas prepare for an oncoming bout of heavy rain and possible flooding. The storm was developing over the southern Gulf of Mexico and expected to reach land as a potential tropical cyclone, according to the National Hurricane Center.
If the storm becomes strong enough it will become the first named storm of the season: Tropical Storm Alberto.
The tropical storm warning covers coastal Texas areas from Port O’Connor to the mouth of the Rio Grande and extends downward along the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Rainfall linked to the potential tropical cyclone was expected to affect large parts of Central America, too.
4am CDT Tue: Tropical Storm Warnings have been issued for coastal Texas from Port O’Connor southward to the Mouth of the Rio Grande. Heavy rainfall and moderate coastal flooding are the biggest concerns. More: https://t.co/tW4KeGdBFb pic.twitter.com/cAAtc9MZJj
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) June 18, 2024
Although a map released by the National Hurricane Center showed the storm system striking coastal areas just after midnight on Thursday, meteorologists noted that the impacts would likely be felt on land sooner than that. The latest forecasts indicated that the system would likely increase in strength over the next 36 hours before becoming a tropical storm.
“The disturbance is very large with rainfall, coastal flooding, and wind impacts likely to occur far from the center along the coasts of Texas and northeastern Mexico,” the hurricane center said in a Tuesday advisory.
In Texas, the hurricane center said moderate coastal flooding could begin along the coast as soon as Tuesday morning and continue through the middle of the week. The situation was forecast to worsen on Wednesday for people in the tropical storm warning area.
The annual Atlantic Hurricane Season officially began on June 1 and will run through the end of November, with most storm activity typically happening during the later months of that window, between mid-August and mid-October.
The National Hurricane Center upgraded what had been the current season’s first tropical storm watch to a tropical storm warning at 4 a.m. CT on Tuesday. The difference accounts for timing — forecasters will generally issue a “watch” when tropical storm conditions are possible in the impacted area within roughly 36 hours, and a “warning” when the conditions become more imminent, about 24 hours out.
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The Pentagon freed two prisoners Wednesday from Guantánamo Bay, marking the second and third releases this week from the notorious wartime detention camp.
Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep were repatriated to Malaysia, where both are nationals, according to the United States Department of Defense. The men had been held by the U.S. since 2003 and imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay since 2006, for their ties to al Qaeda and an Indonesian extremist group called Jemaah Islamiyah.
The repatriation of Amin and Lep came as part of a plea deal and an agreement with the government of Malaysia, Defense officials said. Each pleaded guilty before a U.S. military commission to various war crimes, including murder, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, conspiracy and destruction of property. They also provided deposition testimony that can be used against a different prisoner, Encep Nurjaman, who is believed to be the “mastermind” responsible for al Qaeda attacks in Bali and Jakarta between 2002 and 2003.
Their conditions for release from Guantánamo Bay call for an additional five-year period of confinement for each prisoner, to be served either in the country where they are repatriated or a third-party sovereign nation.
Amin and Lep’s releases were announced one day after the Pentagon said another prisoner, Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu, was freed from incarceration at Guantánamo Bay and repatriated to Kenya. Detained by the U.S. for 18 years without criminal charges, Bajabu was the first prisoner freed from the camp in roughly a year. U.S. defense officials said a review board determined in December 2021 that detaining Bajabu “was no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States.” The board recommended with that determination that Bajabu be transferred out of Guantánamo Bay.
“The United States appreciates the support to ongoing U.S. efforts toward a deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,” the Defense Department said in statements on the releases of all three prisoners.
The latest repatriation efforts leave 27 prisoners still detained at Guantánamo Bay. Of them, 15 are eligible for transfer, three are eligible for evaluation by the review board, and seven are being tried through the military commissions process. Only the final two prisoners have been convicted and sentenced by military commissions, according to the Pentagon.