A hurricane watch has been issued for parts of the Texas and Louisiana coast, as a system gathers strength in the Gulf of Mexico following an unusually calm start to the Atlantic season.
Tropical Storm Edouard was 155 miles (250 kilometers) southeast of Port Arthur, Texas, with top sustained winds of 40 miles per hour, the US National Hurricane Center said in an advisory late Monday. It has become the Atlantic’s fifth named storm of the six-month season.
Edouard could approach hurricane strength before reaching the northwest Gulf coast on Tuesday, the center said. Waves of up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) are possible along parts of the coast, and the storm could bring rain of up to 9 inches to parts of Texas.
The storm is small, but is building over waters warm enough to provide fuel for strengthening, the hurricane center added. That could produce flash flooding, especially in low-lying and urban areas.
Any intensification will likely be short-lived, however, with the system forecast to rapidly weaken after making landfall.
So far this year, four short-lived storms have formed in the Atlantic, none of which reached hurricane strength. Typically, the basin would have produced six named storms by now — two of which would have grown into hurricanes — but this year’s El Niño weather patten in the Pacific Ocean is increasing wind shear across the Atlantic Ocean that’s been holding storms back.
Storms in the Gulf are particularly closely watched because the region is vital to US oil and natural gas production, processing and refining.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announced that a contractor has pled guilty to defrauding consumers through his residential contracting business.
Gene M. Matlock, owner of Matlock Construction, pled guilty on August 17 to one felony count of deceptive business practices and one felony count of stealing.
According to the investigation, Matlock solicited large, upfront payments from consumers for home‑construction and contracting services.
After receiving payment, he either performed negligible work before abandoning the projects or failed to complete any work or deliver any materials, leaving customers without the services they paid for and facing significant financial losses.
As part of his guilty plea, Matlock was sentenced to four years in prison on the deceptive business practices conviction and five years on the stealing conviction.
The Court also ordered him to pay $191,975 in restitution to victims. This restitution amount includes every victim identified by the Attorney General’s Office, not only those named in the criminal case.
Matlock was additionally placed on a five‑year term of supervised probation.
