Tropical Storm Erika hit Mexico's city of Matamoros with high winds and heavy rains early on Saturday. The severe weather downed trees and damaged roofs and cars in the border town, Mexican television reports said. On the South Padre Island waters are lapping up against a concrete barrier that ordinarily is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by about 150 yards of beach. Palm trees are buffeted by the winds reaching gusts of 30 to 40 miles per hour and higher. "We still haven't seen the strongest winds yet," Alfredo Vega, forecaster for the National Weather Service, alarmed. Erika made its approach a month after Hurricane Claudette pounded Texas about 75 miles farther north.