Tropical storm Alex was slowly intensifying off Mexico's Yucutan Peninsula on Monday, prompting hurricane watches from US and Mexican officials, dpa cited the US National Hurrican Centre in Miami as saying. The storm with winds of 95 kilometres per hour could become a hurricane over the next two days. Hurricane watches were in place for north-eastern Mexico and southern Texas. Alex had been earlier downgraded to tropical depression status over the Yucatan, but had regained strength as it moved back over open water. Heavy flooding was anticipated for the Yucatan Peninsula and Veracruz, with life-threatening flash floods and mudslides in mountainous areas, the Miami-based hurricane centre said. If the storm turned eastward across the Gulf of Mexico it would spell trouble for the cleanup operations of BP's massive oil leak off the coast of Louisiana. A hurricane would force retreat by the boats that are corralling, burning off and siphoning oil from the well gusher.
