MIAMI - Hurricane Claudette, packing winds of up to 120 kilometers (75 miles) an hour, was set to make landfall in Texas, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said Tuesday morning.

At 1300 GMT, the center of the storm was located in the Gulf of Mexico, 72 kilometers (45 miles) east of Port Oconnor, Texas, and moving west-northwest at about 18 kilometers (11 miles) an hour. This motion should bring the eye of Claudette to the Texas Coast in the Port Oconnor to Palacios are in the next few hours, the center said.

The storm packed maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers an hour with higher gusts and could strengthen before making landfall. A hurricane warning was in effect along parts of the Texas coast, that could be hit by large and dangerous battering waves, surge floods and isolated tornadoes.

Claudette is the first hurricane of the 2003 Atlantic season that runs from June 1 to November 30.

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