Tropical Storm Hanna wallops COVID-hit TX coast

Tropical Storm Hanna wallops COVID-hit TX coast

Tropical Storm Hanna flipped tractor trailers, ripped roofs off houses and thrashed a south Texas coastline already badly hit by COVID-19 infections.

Lisa Bernhard produced this report.

Tropical storm Hanna left a trail of devastation along the south Texas coast on Sunday.

It flipped tractor-trailers, downed power lines and tore the roofs off houses in an area already badly hit by COVID-19 infections.

Powerful winds overturned at least three 18-wheeler trucks, shutting down a 2-mile stretch of U.S. Route 77 in Sarita, Texas, near the Mexican border.

At one point more than 283,000 homes and businesses were without electricity.

Hanna made landfall Saturday as a Category 1 hurricane, but was later downgraded to a tropical storm, and is forecast to lose more steam as it moves across Texas and northeastern Mexico.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott over the weekend said that the storm was especially challenging as it was sweeping through an area of the state that has been the worst hit by the coronavirus.

The White House approved an emergency disaster declaration for Texas.

Hanna still posed a threat, forecasters said, noting it could dump upward of 18 inches of rain in isolated areas of southern Texas through Monday.