Severe Weather Wreaks Havoc on Corpus Christi Refineries

(Dow Jones)–Mother Nature kicked off hurricane season Thursday with a slap at the oil refineries in Corpus Christi, Texas.

While it was neither a hurricane nor a tropical storm, heavy rains and lightning on the first day of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane system reduced operations at two of three refineries in the area and shut down vessel movement in and out of the port of Corpus Christi.

“Murphy was certainly around last night,” quipped Tony Alejandro, deputy director of operations for the Corpus Christi Port Authority, referring to the likelihood of many things going wrong at once. “It’s one of those things where we’ve been in a drought for months and months, and when we get rain, it’s a torrential downpour.”

DowJones Newswires