Hurricane Hanna made landfall on Texas’ Padre Island on Saturday afternoon, with maximum winds of 90mph, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in an early evening update. Local officials asked residents to stay home and ride out the storm, but to also be mindful of the pandemic. Meteorologists said the biggest concern was expected to be flash flooding. In the Caribbean, Tropical Storm Gonzalo was dwindling. To the west, Hawaii was bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Douglas, which was expected to weaken before coming close to the islands. Many parts of Texas have been dealing with a surge in coronavirus cases. Local officials said they were prepared. “Don’t feel like since we’ve been fighting Covid for five months, that we’re out of energy or we’re out of gas. We’re not,” Corpus Christi mayor Joe McComb said. “We can do these two things together and we’re going to win both of them.” Corpus Christi is in Nueces county, where health officials made headlines when they revealed that 60 infants tested positive for Covid-19 from 1 to 16 July. Further south in Cameron county, which borders Mexico, more than 300 confirmed new cases have been reported almost daily for the past two weeks, according to state health figures. The past week has also been the county’s deadliest. Cameron county judge Eddie Trevino, its top elected official, said he was awaiting word of whether hotels would be used to house recovering Covid-19 patients in order to free up hospital beds. “If there’s any benefit to be gained from this, it’s that people have to stay at home for a weekend,” Trevino said. Officials reminded residents to wear masks if they needed to get supplies or if they had to shelter with neighbors because of flooding. The main hazard from Hanna was expected to be flash flooding, said Chris Birchfield, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Brownsville. Forecasters said Hanna could bring 6in to 12in of rain through Sunday night with isolated totals of 18in in addition to coastal swells that could cause life-threatening surf and rip currents. Coastal states scrambled this spring to adjust emergency hurricane plans to account for the virus, and Hanna loomed as the first big test. South Texas officials’ plans for rescues, shelters and monitoring of the storm will have the pandemic in mind. Governor Greg Abbott said various resources to respond to the storm were on standby, including search-and-rescue teams and aircraft. Trevino said shelters would keep families socially distanced. In the Mexican city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, volunteers worried whether the storm would affect a makeshift migrant camp near the Rio Grande where about 1,300 asylum seekers, including newborn babies and elderly people, are waiting under the US immigration policy informally known as “Remain in Mexico”. Erin Hughes, a volunteer at the camp, said storms posed a devastating threat since the camp is located on a floodplain, and that she and others were monitoring the river. As of Saturday morning, storm surge up to 5ft was forecast on the Texas coast. People were advised to protect life and property from high water. Tornadoes were also possible for parts of the lower to middle Texas coastal plain, forecasters said. A Pacific Ocean hurricane was heading toward Hawaii. Douglas was expected to be near the main Hawaiian islands late on Saturday night and to move over parts of the state on Sunday and Monday. A hurricane warning was in effect for Oahu county. Back in the Atlantic, the remnants of Tropical Storm Gonzalo were expected to move west across the southern Caribbean for the next couple of days. Gonzalo had maximum sustained winds of 35mph and was forecast to bring 1in to 2in of rain. Watches or warnings were no longer in effect.