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Hurricane Alex made landfall Wednesday in northeastern Mexico as a Category Two storm, lashing residents of the Mexican Gulf coast and south Texas with heavy rains and winds.

The first Atlantic hurricane of the 2010 season roared ashore at about 0200 GMT, thrashing the Mexican coast with its eye located some 35 miles (56 km) north of La Pesca, Mexico and 110 miles south of Brownsville, Texas, according to the National Hurricane Centre.

Hurricane Alex rose one notch on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale Wednesday as it churned across the warm waters of the Gulf, the Miami-based centre said, after Mexico evacuated 17,000 people from fishing towns south of the US border in the state of Tamaulipas.

Alex has already disrupted oil clean-up operations off the coast of Louisiana, and US President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Texas late Tuesday.

Giant waves and strong winds were expected as Alex gained strength in the Gulf of Mexico. It hit the coast with sustained winds of 105 miles (169 km) per hour, according to the latest NHC report.

Obama requested federal aid for relief operations after a hurricane warning was issued for southeast Texas and northeast Mexico.

Texas Governor Rick Perry issued his own state disaster proclamation for 19

counties.

Mexican authorities have already reported one storm-related death, but could consider themselves fortunate in that the storm slammed into the coast in an area with a relatively small population.

They evacuated all 2,000 inhabitants of the fishing town of La Carbonera, close to the storm's center, with Mexico's national meteorological service SMN warning of "intense and torrential rains."

Homes in La Carbonera, made largely out of wood and located near the shoreline, are particularly vulnerable to the strong winds and a major tide surge that was forecast to accompany the hurricane.

In Matamoros, across from Brownsville, the edge of the storm brought heavy rains which flooded streets.

Alex was forecast to weaken as it tracks inland in Mexico Thursday, eventually dissipating in one to two days, but it was still packing a punch, the NHC reported.

The storm was well southwest of the area worst hit by the massive BP oil spill -- the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida -- though its strong winds have already caused problems for the clean-up effort.

Despite its distance from the spill, Alex's severe winds have churned up waves that halted some clean-up operations and pushed more of the huge slick onto fragile shorelines.

The NHC has warned that heavy rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mud slides, and that ocean water could penetrate inland for several miles.

Tornadoes were possible over southern Texas late Wednesday, the NHC added.

Alex is the first Atlantic hurricane to form this early, in June, since 1995, according to the NHC.

Alex has already killed at least 10 people in Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador over the weekend.

-AFP/jy