Tropical Storm Arthur forms off Texas coast, fueling major flood threat for Gulf Coast states

Summary

• Tropical Storm Arthur has formed in the Gulf. A tropical storm warning is in effect from Sargent, Texas, to Morgan City, Louisiana.
• Over 18 million people are under flood watches from eastern Texas to Georgia as the system could dump up to a foot of rain in some areas.
• The system has already killed at least two people in Texas and triggered nearly 150 flooding reports across the Gulf Coast since Sunday.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

Tropical Storm Arthur, the first named storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, formed just off the coast of Texas Wednesday morning. It’s been fueling a deadly flood threat across the Gulf Coast that will continue into the South through Friday.

Arthur’s center is now inland about 10 miles northwest of Galveston, Texas, as of 8 p.m. ET, according to the National Hurricane Center. It’s forecast to track farther inland across extreme southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana through tonight.

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Heavy rainfall supercharged by tropical moisture has already left its mark even before Arthur formed — at least two people have died in floodwater in Texas so far this week.

Parts of eastern Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi have picked up more than a month’s worth of rain in just three days, with some accomplishing this in several hours because of such heavy rainfall rates.

A tropical storm warning is in effect from High Island, Texas, to Morgan City, Louisiana, since winds of 40 mph or stronger are expected along that stretch of coast on Wednesday.

Minor to moderate coastal flooding from storm surge is also possible along the upper Texas and Louisiana coasts on Wednesday.

Flood watches for the system’s heavy rain have been issued for more than 18 million people along the northern Gulf Coast to as far east as parts of Georgia. Lake Charles and New Orleans, Louisiana; Biloxi, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; and Pensacola, Florida, are among the cities that could see significant to life-threatening flash floods.

Those cities face a Level 3 out of 4 threat of flooding rain on one or multiple days from Wednesday to Friday, according to the Weather Prediction Center. Rainfall rates of 3 to 4 inches per hour are possible at times in some of these areas.

Arthur is expected to produce 5 to 10 inches of rain through early Friday from the upper Texas coast east through central and southern parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, the western Florida Panhandle and western Georgia, the hurricane center says. A few spots could see up to 20 inches of rain.

Some locations from southern and eastern Texas to southern Louisiana and southern Mississippi have seen over 6 inches of rain so far. The highest total as of Tuesday night was just over 9 inches near Caldwell, Texas.

Texas, Louisiana and southern Mississippi have already been swamped by flooding from this system’s moisture colliding with a stalled front. There have been nearly 150 reports of flooding across these areas since Sunday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 101 counties and activated additional state emergency response resources on Monday.

In Bandera County, northwest of San Antonio, a woman was killed after her vehicle was swept into a flooded creek early Monday morning. The woman called 911 and said she was “floating downstream at a high rate of speed and unable to exit her vehicle,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. Authorities launched swift water rescue teams after losing contact with the woman. Her vehicle was found “several miles downstream” and “completely submerged,” the sheriff said.

Street flooding in Montgomery County, part of the greater Houston metro area, led to several stranded vehicles and at least 10 street closures on Tuesday, according to Montgomery County Sheriff spokesperson Miranda Hahs.

On Tuesday evening, a 15-year-old boy was found dead in Magnolia in Montgomery County, after he entered a flooded retention pond while playing with a group of teenagers near a construction roadway, the sheriff’s office said in a statement to CNN.

“After an extensive search, the juvenile was located underwater using sonar technology … this incident serves as a solemn reminder of the dangers associated with floodwaters,” the sheriff’s office said, expressing its “deepest condolences to the family.”

Drivers stranded in floodwater have required rescue or assistance in Travis, Bexar and Williamson counties since Monday, according to local authorities. About 80 low water crossings in Travis County were flooded Monday morning, county Judge Andy Brown told CNN.

Homes, buildings and roads flooded in Picayune, Mississippi, where an estimated 8 to 9 inches of rain fell over six hours on Tuesday.

Fire crews rescued a family, including an infant, from a home with knee-deep water, Picayune Fire Department Chief Joshua Abercrombie told CNN, noting floodwater was waist-deep on the road outside the home. Some drivers also got stuck in the flooding in the city, but there were no reported injuries.

“This just dumped a tremendous amount of rain,” Abercrombie said. “We’re not used to flooding in the areas we got it in.”

In neighboring Forrest County, responders rescued a driver from the top of a submerged vehicle, county Director of Emergency Management Glen Moore told CNN. The driver lost control of the vehicle and ended up in a flooded ditch, but was able to climb onto the roof before it became completely submerged.

In Shreveport, Louisiana, floodwater stranded drivers and entered a few commercial buildings and at least one building at a technical college on Monday, Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Deputy John Lane told CNN. The sheriff’s office received 52 calls for water rescues in a roughly six-hour period, but Lane didn’t know how many of those calls ultimately required a rescue. No injuries were reported, he said.

In Waco, Texas, multiple vehicles were stranded in floodwater on parts of Interstate 35 on Sunday night, forcing rescues, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. Photos posted by the city on Monday show roadways washed away by the storms.

“I have not seen flooding like that in Waco before,” Texas Game Warden Capt. Matthew Kiel told CNN Monday, noting many low water crossings in rural parts of the county were flooded and wardens had completed a handful of water rescues across central Texas.

Here’s where the biggest flooding concerns are expected in the next few days:

• Wednesday to Wednesday night: Rainfall on the upper Texas coast has diminished. Flooding risk will increase from Louisiana east to the western Florida Panhandle overnight into early Thursday morning.

• Thursday to Thursday night: Heavy rain will likely be ongoing first thing in the morning over eastern Louisiana and parts of Mississippi and Alabama. This batch of storms will spread as far east as Georgia and the western Florida Panhandle by afternoon and evening.

• Friday to Friday night: The cold front could cause at least isolated flash flooding in much of the South, but the most significant risk is in southern Alabama and nearby parts of southern Mississippi and the western Florida Panhandle.

Correction:
A previous version of this story misstated the extent of the tropical storm watch. It extends through Morgan City, Louisiana.