
Tropical Storm Humberto is seen at 1:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday as its center approaches landfall in Texas.
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 1 hour, 39 minutes ago
MIAMI - A tropical storm formed off the Gulf Coast on Wednesday, and forecasters warned residents of Texas and Louisiana to expect heavy rain and possibly tornadoes and flooding by this evening.
Named Humberto, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph by 5 p.m. ET and was already producing rain over the two states. Some additional strengthening was expected before landfall.
"Isolated tornadoes are possible in southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana tonight," the National Weather Service warned.
National Hurricane Center specialist Jack Beven said about 5 to 10 inches of rain were expected along the middle and upper Texas coast and in southwestern Louisiana, with some areas possibly getting as much as 15 inches.
Forecasters warned of storm surge flooding of 2 feet to 3 feet near where the storms center makes landfall.
This has been a wet summer for Texas, so the extra rain could be enough to create some considerable flooding, Beven said.
Humberto was expected to cross the Texas coast within the warning area between Port OConnor, Texas, and Intracoastal City, La.
At 5 p.m. ET, the eye was about 50 miles south-southwest of Galveston, Texas. The storm was moving north at 7 mph.
Tropical storm force winds extend 60 miles from the center of Humberto.
Humberto formed from a depression that developed Wednesday morning. A depression becomes a named tropical storm when its sustained winds reach 39 mph, and a hurricane when those winds reach 74 mph.
Wednesday also saw the formation of a tropical depression in the open Atlantic. It was centered about 1,130 miles east of the Lesser Antilles, had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph and was moving west-northwest at about 12 mph.
For My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways, my ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa. 55:89).
