Hurricane Alex heads for Mexico

MATAMOROS, Mexico – The first Atlantic hurricane of the year plowed ahead toward a collision with the Mexican Gulf coast and south Texas, whipping up high waves that frustrated oil-spill clean-up efforts and delivering tar balls and globs of crude onto already soiled beaches.Hurricane Alex flooded roads and forced thousands of people to evacuate fishing villages as it bore down on the northeastern Mexican coast.Braving horizontal sheets of rain, Mexican marines went door-to-door in the small fishing community of Playa Bagdad, trying to evacuate villagers from rickety wooden shacks.At least 50 people were easily persuaded to get aboard buses to shelters, but holdouts could be seen peeking through windows. One man rebuffed the navy’s offer and quickly shut his plywood door.“We’re worried it’s going to come hard,” said Macedonia Villegas as she and her son readied their house before leaving with the marines. Surf pounded the nearby shore, and a lagoon swelled behind her home.Emergency-preparedness workers also planned to evacuate 2 500 people from coastal areas east of Matamoros, said Civil Protection Director Saul Hernandez, who added that he was most concerned about 13 000 families in low-lying areas where there are few public utilities or city services.The storm was far from the Gulf oil spill, but cleanup vessels were sidelined by the hurricane’s ripple effects. Six-foot waves churned up by the hurricane splattered beaches in Louisiana, Alabama and Florida with oil and tar balls. (AP)