Beach closures stretch from Florida to Mississippi as storm crawls west

Tropical Storm Bertha made a second landfall near the Texas-Louisiana state line on Thursday afternoon, about 75 miles northeast of Galveston, Texas, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm had spent Wednesday crawling across southern Louisiana, bringing heavy surf and scattered flooding that forced beach closures from northwestern Florida to Mississippi, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Three hours after moving inland, Bertha remained a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds reduced to 40 mph (65 km/h), the NHC said. Forecasters said the storm should weaken further through the night as it moves over land. The NHC warned of possible additional flooding as heavy rains push inland across southeast Texas.

Bertha formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday as the second named storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season.1

Footnotes

  1. MSI previously reported that Bertha formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday and was expected to threaten the Gulf Coast with heavy rain and storm surge. ↩