Tropical Storm Arthur has formed off the Texas coast as the first tropical storm of the season in the Atlantic basin, threatening a wide swath of the Gulf Coast with potentially dangerous flooding even as it was expected to quickly weaken.
The centre of the storm by Wednesday afternoon had appeared to move inland in southeast Texas, but Arthur's impacts were set to be felt well beyond, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Maximum sustained winds were around 75km/h, and the storm was expected to lose strength as it moved further over land.
Officials urged millions of people along the Gulf Coast to take the storm seriously amid warnings that the storm could dump dangerous amounts of rain in some areas. In Louisiana and Mississippi, some communities set up locations for residents to collect sandbags and cleared debris from drainage systems.
