Tropical Depression Bertha made a second landfall on the Gulf Coast near the Texas-Louisiana state line on Thursday afternoon, after first coming ashore in southeast Louisiana on Wednesday. The storm was moving west across Texas and heading toward Houston as it weakened inland later Thursday.
Bertha packed 45 mph winds when it came ashore near Lake Charles, Louisiana, and it had already formed into a tropical storm on Sunday. By Thursday, it had curled back out into the Gulf after dumping rain on the Louisiana coast, then regained some strength before returning to land.
Corpus Christi to Port Lavaca
Heavy rain was expected to keep moving into the Texas coastline from Corpus Christi to Port Lavaca, with the Corpus Christi area set to get 1 to 3 inches through Friday. Isolated flash flooding was possible along that stretch, and Bertha was likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions along the northern Gulf Coast over the next few days.
Most of Bertha's precipitation was displaced to its south in the Gulf even as the Texas coastline still faced rain and flood risk. Swells generated by the storm were expected to continue spreading westward along the northern Gulf Coast, leaving the shoreline under more than one hazard at the same time.
Texas and Central Texas
The storm was expected to continue moving inland into Texas on Thursday evening and quickly weaken. It was likely to dissipate over Central Texas on Thursday night or Friday morning, ending the inland phase after its second Gulf Coast landfall.
For people along the Texas coast, the immediate concern remained the rain band and surf conditions rather than the storm's center, which had already slipped back inland. The practical next step was to watch for localized flooding in low-lying areas and to account for rough surf along the coast while Bertha moved away and faded.
