US President Barack Obama has declared a state of emergency in Texas as Hurricane Alex threatens the coast with winds of over 100mph (155km/h).

飓风亚历克斯以每小时100英里的速度袭击德克萨斯州海岸，奥巴马总统宣布德州进入紧急状态。

Alex, now a category two hurricane, made landfall in north-eastern Mexico near the border with Texas.

Heavy seas caused by the first Atlantic hurricane of the season have already disrupted BP's oil spill clean-up in the Gulf¹ of Mexico.

Boats skimming（撇去） the slick have been sent back to port by the US Coast Guard.

High waves and strong winds generated by Alex have also pushed more oil from the spill on to beaches in Louisiana.

"The sad thing is that it has been about three weeks since we had any big oil come in here," said marine² science technician Michael Malone. "With this weather, we lost all the progress we made," he added.

A huge oil patch（油渍） has been pushed towards Louisiana's Grand Isle³ and the uninhabited Elmer's Island, dumping large tar⁴ balls（原油球块） on the beach.

Oil dispersant（分散剂） flights and controlled burning operations in the Gulf of Mexico have also been postponed⁵.

However, Alex is not stopping oil recovery at the scene of the leak, 50 miles (80km) off the Louisiana coast.

Two vessels⁷ are capturing oil gushing⁸ from the wreck⁹ of the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig despite waves of up to 7ft (2.1m).

The deployment¹⁰ of a third vessel⁶ has been delayed until the weather improves.

A containment¹¹ cap is capturing up to 25,000 of the estimated 30,000 to 60,000 barrels of crude spewing from the ruptured¹² well every day.

Mr Obama's emergency declaration allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema联邦应急管理局) to co-ordinate disaster relief efforts, the White House said.

Roads flooded

Alex made landfall at Soto La Marina in Mexico's Tamaulipas state at about 2200 local time on Wednesday (0200 GMT on Thursday), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

The storm, which is moving west at about 10mph, is about 110 miles (165km) south of Brownsville, Texas.

Heavy rains have already flooded roads in the Mexican town of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville.

And hundreds of Mexicans living in fishing villages along the Gulf Coast have fled inland to take refuge in（避难，求助） storm shelters. The NHC warned earlier that torrential rain（暴雨） could cause flash floods and mudslides in north-eastern Mexico and southern Texas.

It also warned of a storm surge of up to 5ft (1.5m) spreading several miles inland along the affected¹³ coast.

Alex is the first Atlantic hurricane to have formed as early as June since 1995, according to the NHC（国家飓风中心） .