SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas — In the end, Tropical Storm Don was little more than summer thunderstorms. Some scattered showers were expected to linger over parts of South Texas, but the area’s best hope for substantial rain in months collapsed on approach Friday evening, drizzling the area with less than an inch of rain and strong breezes.
Officially, the center of Don remained just off the Texas coast at 8:40 p.m. CDT Friday, but at that point it was little more than a low-pressure system, said Lixion Avila, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.
“It’s a very weak system,” Avila said. “It doesn’t matter whether it makes landfall.”
Cotton growers who scrambled to harvest in recent days, but still left the bulk of their fluffy bolls in the field, could breathe a sigh of relief. For other farmers and ranchers, it will be back to watching the skies longingly for rain.
Almost all of Texas is in extreme drought, and even Don’s projected few inches of rain wouldn’t have cured that. At this point, any moisture is appreciated.
“It was somewhat of a dud,” said Carlos Cascos, the top elected official in Cameron County at Texas’ southernmost tip. “It looked huge and powerful on the radar.
“We have another one out there that we’ll be watching as well,” Cascos said, referring to a new disturbance in the Caribbean.
Earlier Friday, storm preparations in South Texas were light, with some people seeing it as a drill for things to come.
Cameron County asked people with RVs and other vehicles prone to taking flight in high winds to move them out of its parks on the island, but few seemed to be doing it.
Janie Rodriguez of Weslaco just secured loose items around her motor home at the park. She took down an awning but decided to leave a fishing boat, trailer and electric car with the motor home.
“They’re saying it’s OK to leave your trailers,” she said. “I’m just picking up what would blow away with the wind.”
