Near Miss For Emily
Only Minor Damage Experienced
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 July 21, 2005 - SOUTH PADRE ISLAND - Residents and visitors of the Texas Rio Grande Valley are breathing a little easier today after Hurricane Emily slammed into the northeastern Mexican coast about 70 miles south of here on Wednesday, sparring the Valley of serious storm damage.
Wind gusts on the island were clocked at just above hurricane force. A Port Isabel weather advisor reported the highest gust recorded there was 79 miles per hour.
Officials had feared the Category Three hurricane might cause serious damage to the Valley, but the storm took a slight westerly path in the last hours before making landfall that kept the damaging 125 mile-per-hour winds south of Texas and impacting the Mexican coast.
Beneficial rains were reported across the Valley in amounts exceeding five inches. The Valley has been suffering drought conditions in recent months and badly in need of rain. No serious flooding was reported and wind damage was mostly limited to signs and roof shingles. The Texas Department of Public Safety closed the Queen Isabella Memorial Causeway during the height of the storm after a few utility poles on the island were broken from the gale force winds.
Nearly 700 RVers were ordered off the island Monday, a measure largely taken to allow the larger vehicles to cross the causeway before winds prevented their escape. The causeway is routinely closed when wind speeds exceed 55 MPH.
In addition to common wind damage, a number of island businesses report glass windows were shattered by the force of the wind. No injuries were recorded.
Late Wednesday afternoon the storm spawned a tornado near Combes and another in the Falfurias area, but the twisters failed to cause serious damage.
Editor's Note: Winter Texans Online Magazine offices, located on South Padre Island, were closed half day on Tuesday and all of Wednesday pending final storm damage assessment and because of isolated power outages.
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Rio Grande Valley
