Tropical storm Nicholas threatens to hit Texas as hurricane, residents brace for potential flooding

Tropical storm Nicholas gathered strength Monday and threatened to blow ashore in Texas as a hurricane that could bring up to 50 centimetres of rain to parts of the Gulf Coast, including the same area hit by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and storm-battered Louisiana.

Although the system was expected to generate only a fraction as much rain as Harvey, nearly all of the state's coastline was under a tropical storm warning that included potential flash floods and urban flooding. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said authorities placed rescue teams and resources in the Houston area and along the coast. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the system's top sustained winds were 110 km/h, nearly hurricane strength and an increase of 16 km/h from earlier in the day. If the winds hit 119 km/h, the storm would become a Category 1 hurricane. It was moving north-northeast at 19 km/h and was predicted to make landfall late Monday night along the central Texas coast. An automated station in Matagorda Bay registered a sustained wind of 89 km/h with a gust of 115 km/h, the hurricane centre reported. In flood-prone Houston, officials worried that heavy rain expected to arrive late Monday and early Tuesday could inundate streets and flood homes. Authorities deployed high-water rescue vehicles throughout the city and erected barricades at more than 40 locations that tend to flood, Mayor Sylvester Turner said. "This city is very resilient. We know what we need to do. We know about preparing," said Turner, referencing four major floods that have hit the Houston area in recent years, including devastating damage from Harvey, which flooded more than 150,000 homes in the Houston area.