Tropical Storm Edouard hits Texas coast

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Edouard plowed into a wildlife refuge on the upper Texas coast early on Tuesday, bringing driving rains and peak winds near 65 mph (100 kph) but leaving key energy installations mostly unscathed.

Edouard, the fifth tropical storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season, was just below hurricane strength when it came ashore at the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge, halfway between High Island and Sabine Pass, forecasters said.

At 5 p.m. EDT, the storm was about 35 miles (56 km) north-northeast of Houston, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. A last-minute jog to the north took the storm away from Galveston and a direct path across Houston.

Instead the storm came ashore at the biggest freshwater marsh in Texas, a stopping point for migrating birds like snow geese.

The Miami-based forecasters downgraded Edouard to a tropical depression later on Tuesday.

U.S. crude oil futures settled down $2.24 to $119.17 a barrel after tumbling to $118.00 earlier, the lowest price since May 5 as traders discounted the possibility of widespread disruptions from the storm.

LITTLE DAMAGE

Other than scattered power outages and an occasional downed tree, there was little damage along the upper Texas coast.

Greg Fountain, emergency management coordinator in Jefferson County near Beaumont, said his county saw lots of rain but generally "dodged a bullet."

As a precaution, Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Monday declared 17 counties disaster areas and mobilized 1,200 National Guard troops. In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a statewide emergency.

Even at its peak, Edouard packed considerably less punch than Hurricane Dolly did when it hit South Texas on July 23 with 95 mph (153 kph) winds, dousing the area with tremendous downpours and leaving 100,000 people without power.

The 2008 storm season has a long way to go. Noted Colorado State University hurricane researchers on Tuesday raised their forecast and now call for 17 tropical storms to form, of which nine would strengthen into hurricanes.

The team, formed by forecasting pioneer William Gray, in June predicted the six-month season that began on June 1 would produce 15 storms with eight becoming hurricanes.

Edouard, the second named storm to threaten oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico this year, shut down a huge offshore oil port, closed the Houston Ship Channel and prompted several offshore operators including Chevron Corp and Shell Oil to evacuate staff from their platforms. But energy companies reported little production slowdown.

The Gulf of Mexico supplies about a quarter of the nation's crude oil and 15 percent of its natural gas, while refiners along the coast produce about a quarter of domestic gasoline.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only deep-water U.S. oil port and a major conduit for the country's crude oil imports, began unloading tankers later on Tuesday after closing Monday.

Powerful hurricanes in 2004 and 2005, including Hurricane Katrina, toppled oil rigs and severed pipelines in the gulf.

This year has already seen two of this year's storms strengthen into hurricanes. Last month was the third most active July for storms since records began in 1851.

(Additional reporting by Michael Christie in Miami, Jim Forsyth in San Antonio; Editing by Eric Walsh)