Police in Corpus Christi, Texas reported late Friday that a man was shot during an alleged burglary just as a Category 4 hurricane made landfall nearby.

The Corpus Christi Police Department tweeted late Friday that a ‘homeowner shot [an] intruder’ at 7100 Ficus Court.

Police reported that the victim was rushed to hospital with a gunshot wound and ‘was coherent when medics took him.’

The timing could not have possibly been worse since the city and the entire state are just beginning to grapple with what some say could be one of the worst natural disasters ever.

Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast on Friday as a Category 4 storm, bringing life-threatening winds and the likelihood of catastrophic flooding as the most powerful storm in over a decade hit the mainland United States.

Police in Corpus Christi, Texas reported late Friday that a man was shot during an alleged burglary just as a Category 4 hurricane made landfall nearby. The above image shows a man unrelated to the shooting walking along the Corpus Christi boardwalk on Friday

Police reported that the victim was rushed to hospital with a gunshot wound and ‘was coherent when medics took him’

The hurricane made landfall northeast of Corpus Christi around 10pm local time with maximum winds of 130 miles per hour.

The storm is expected to move slowly over the Texas and Louisiana coasts for days, with forecasts for storm surges of up to 13 feet and over 3 feet of rain.

As many as 6 million people were believed to be in Harvey’s path, as is the heart of America’s oil refining operations.

The storm’s impact on refineries has already pushed up gasoline prices while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lifted some rules on gasoline to reduce shortages.

Fueled by the warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Harvey became the first Category 4 hurricane to wallop the United States since Charley in 2004 and the first to hit Texas since Carla in 1961.

About 30 miles from Corpus Christi and moving northwest, Harvey caused scattered power outages both on the coast near Galveston and 100 miles inland.

In Corpus Christi, a city of 320,000 under voluntary evacuation, strengthening winds buffeted the few trucks and cars that continued to circulate on the streets.

The storm toppled wooden roadwork signs and littered the streets with pieces of palm trees as white caps rocked sailboats in their docks.