Nicholas was located approximately 15 miles south-southwest of Houston on Tuesday morning, moving north-northeast at about 8 mph.
It was downgraded to a tropical storm early Tuesday after making landfall around 12:30 a.m. CT along the Texas coast east of the Matagorda Peninsula as a Category 1 hurricane.
NICHOLAS CAME DOWN IN THE TROPICAL SEASON AFTER PACKAGING TEXES AS A CATEGORY 1 HURRICANE
The National Hurricane Center warned that Nicholas could cause life-threatening flash floods across the deep south over the next two days, and at 7 a.m. CT had sustained maximum winds of 60 mph with higher gusts.
Tropical storm winds extend outward up to 125 miles from the center of the storm.
Nicholas is expected to move slowly northeast and then east over Louisiana on Wednesday.
“Little movement is expected on Thursday,” the hurricane center wrote in a Facebook post.
Nicholas is expected to become a tropical depression on Wednesday, although there will be tropical storms off the coast of Texas until Tuesday and along the Louisiana coast later this morning.
“A tornado or two” will also be possible until Tuesday in the upper Texas coast and southern Louisiana.
There is a storm surge warning in effect for St. Louis Pass in Sabine Pass, including Galveston Bay; there is a tropical storm warning in effect for St. Louis Pass, Texas, in Cameron, Louisiana; and a storm surge watch is in effect for Sabine Pass in Rutherford Beach, Louisiana.
A combination of a dangerous storm surge and tide, affected by the tropical storm, is expected to cause flooding of normally dry coastal areas 3-5 feet from Sargent, Texas, on High Island and Galveston Bay.
Nicholas is also expected to produce additional 5-10-inch rainfall from the coastal area of Upper Texas to central and southern Louisiana, the southern tip of Mississippi, and the southern tip of Alabama.
HURRICANE OLAF COLLECTS IN THE RESORTS LOS CABOS OF MEXICO IN CATEGORY 2
There is likely to be a 20-inch isolated storm in south central Louisiana.
“The life-threatening impacts of rapid floods, especially in urbanized metropolitan areas, are possible across these regions. Significant river flooding is expected in isolation across portions of the Gulf Coast. Texas and southern Louisiana and Mississippi, “the hurricane center wrote.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said authorities have placed rescue equipment and resources in the Houston area and along the coast and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said they had been deployed. high-water rescue vehicles and barricades had been set up throughout the city.
“This city is very resilient. We know what we need to do. We know how to prepare,” he said, referring to four major floods that have affected the Houston area in recent years.
Numerous school districts on the Gulf Coast of Texas canceled classes on Monday and Tuesday and multiple COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites in the Houston and Corpus Christi areas had to be closed.
A Monday night concert for Harry Styles, a pop star and boyband sensation, was also canceled.
As trees were reported to have fallen and winds whipped coastal counties, hundreds of thousands were without electricity Tuesday in Texas and Louisiana, according to the PowerOutage.US tracker.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Sunday night.
“The most serious threat to Louisiana is in the southwestern part of the state, where the recovery from Hurricane Laura and the May floods is underway,” Edwards said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION
Nicholas was the 14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic basin, the hurricane center was monitoring a tropical wave and a well-defined low-pressure system located about 400 kilometers southeast of the southern islands of Cape Verde.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.