Tropical Storm Edouard formed Monday in the Gulf of Mexico and was expected to gain strength before bringing potentially heavy rains and flooding into parts of Texas and Louisiana.
The storm was upgraded Monday night from a tropical depression and forecasters with the National Hurricane Center expect it will make landfall in Texas on Tuesday.
Early Tuesday the storm was about 85 miles southeast of Cameron, Louisiana, and 115 miles southeast of Port Arthur, Texas, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph while moving west-northwest at 7 mph.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the biggest problem expected from the storm is flooding.
Forecasters are anticipating 3-6 inches of rain in the greater Houston area, with some areas of the state’s upper coast getting up to 9 inches.
More than 4 inches per hour could fall and will likely cause flash flooding in low-lying and urban areas, according to the National Hurricane Center.
“This is our first big storm of the season, and I’ll tell you, Texas is prepared,” Orlando Alanis of the Texas Division of Emergency Management said during a news conference.
Crews worked Monday to clear dry vegetation that could ignite from a lightning strike and cause fast-spreading fires, Abbott said.
Meanwhile, the remnants of Hurricane Dolly brought rain and thunderstorms to parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the Turks & Caicos, and the Bahamas, the hurricane center said.
In the Pacific Ocean on Monday evening, Tropical Storm Lowell was about 690 miles southeast of Hilo, Hawaii, and moving west with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph while moving west at 10 mph.
Forecasters said Lowell could rapidly intensify and become a major hurricane by Wednesday.
Elsewhere in the Pacific, Hurricane Karina became a hurricane Sunday, fueled by warm waters far from any shore, and strengthened Monday into a powerful Category 4 storm.
But it did not threaten land, forecasters said.
On Monday evening, Karina remained a Category 4 hurricane and was centered 1,135 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph while moving west-northwest at 9 mph, the center said.
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