Tropical Storm Bertha moved inland for the final time Thursday afternoon near the Texas-Louisiana border, bringing with it some tropical storm-force wind gusts and rainfall to parts of those coastlines. But its most widespread flooding rain threat is unfolding hundreds of miles to the east.
The disorganized, lopsided tropical storm was centered about 35 miles north of Galveston Thursday afternoon with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph. Bertha is expected to track farther into Texas and dissipate either Thursday evening or Friday morning.
Meanwhile, a plume of tropical moisture linked to Bertha is feeding soaking rain along a cold front draped across the Southeast.
That moisture will continue to fuel a flooding rainfall threat through Friday from North and South Carolina to northern parts of Georgia and Alabama, potentially causing more flooding there than in areas closer to Bertha itself. Some areas in North Carolina have already received a month’s worth of rain in just a few days with more to come.
Heavy rain Thursday morning prompted flash flood warnings in southeast Virginia, eastern North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Flooding closed a short section of Interstate 40 northwest of Durham, North Carolina, Thursday morning that has since reopened, according to the state’s department of transportation.
