Wednesday, July 16th, 2003 — Hurricane Claudette's 75-mph winds pounded away at the Texas coast Tuesday morning as the storm's furious eyewall reached the shore between Port O'Connor and Palacios.
The eye of the Atlantic season's first hurricane is expected to make landfall Tuesday, according to CNN meteorologist Chad Myers. At 9 a.m. EDT, the center of the storm was about 45 miles east of Port O'Connor, moving west-northwest at 11 mph.
A hurricane warning was in effect from Baffin Bay, Texas, south of Corpus Christi, on north to High Island, east of Galveston. A tropical storm warning extended from High Island to Intracoastal City, Louisiana, and a hurricane watch was in effect for the rest of the Texas shoreline south of Baffin Bay.
Claudette is a Category 1 hurricane, defined as having maximum sustained wind speeds between 74 and 95 mph.