Russ Bynum reported that Bertha Tracker Houston showed Tropical Storm Bertha making a second landfall near the Texas-Louisiana state line on Thursday. The National Hurricane Center said the storm should weaken rapidly over land after its center came onshore Thursday afternoon.
Texas-Louisiana state line
Bertha came onshore about 75 miles northeast of Galveston, Texas, as the center moved inland near the Texas-Louisiana state line. Forecasters said some storm surge along the immediate coast was possible, along with isolated flash flooding.
Gulf Coast impacts
The storm had already made landfall once on Wednesday, when it grazed the Louisiana coast southwest of New Orleans. By Thursday, Bertha was still close enough to the coast to keep water and rainfall concerns in play for the immediate shoreline even as it moved inland.
That combination left the Gulf Coast facing two different conditions at once: a storm that had just come ashore again, and a system the National Hurricane Center expected to lose strength quickly over land. Bertha had formed Monday in the Gulf of Mexico south of Florida, and no deaths or significant damage had been reported since then.
2026 Atlantic hurricane season
Bertha was the second named storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season. For people along the immediate coast, the practical next step was to keep watching for surge and isolated flash flooding while the storm’s core weakened inland. The main near-term change is that the center is now over land, which usually strips a tropical system of its source of warm water and pushes its winds down faster.
