Gulf of Mexico on hurricane alert

South Texas and the Mexican coast are bracing for a potential hurricane as Tropical Storm Dolly bears down on the Gulf of Mexico. The US issued a hurricane watch for Texas from Brownsville to Port O'Connor while Mexico mounted a watch from Rio San Fernando up to the US border. The watch means hurricane conditions can be expected within 36 hours. Some oil workers were brought in from their platforms in the Gulf as a precaution on Sunday. Dolly drenched popular tourist resorts on Mexico's Caribbean coast overnight but caused no damage, Reuters reports. A storm warning issued for Cancun over the weekend was lifted and all ports and airports were operating normally, the news agency says. As of 1500 GMT, the centre of the tropical storm was located about 55 miles (88.5km) north-northeast of Progreso, Mexico. Maximum sustained... [read full story]