Flash flooding, severe storms threaten Texas, Gulf Coast

A slow-moving storm system drenched Texas overnight with some areas getting as much as a half a foot of rain and causing flooding, stranded cars and water rescues.

Also, this storm system produced damaging winds of close to 70 mph from Abilene to Fort Worth, and tennis ball-sized hail in western Texas from Midland to Abilene.

A line of strong to severe storms was moving through central Texas on Wednesday with flash flood and severe thunderstorms watches issued for the area through the evening.

As this storm system slowly moves east later on Wednesday, the severe weather threat will shift south and east into Houston and even eastern Louisiana.

The biggest threat Wednesday will be damaging winds close to 70 mph, large hail and a threat for several tornadoes. The tornado threat Wednesday is higher than Tuesday, especially from Houston to the San Antonio and Austin areas.

Severe weather moves across the Gulf Coast throughout the day on Thursday from New Orleans to the Florida panhandle. As a line of storms moves east it will mainly be a straight line wind threat, with isolated tornadoes possible.

In addition to the severe storms in Texas and the Gulf Coast, heavy rain expected over the next two days.

Some areas could see an additional 2 to 5 inches of rain in Texas and 2 to 3 inches of rain from Louisiana to Mississippi and Alabama. More flash flooding is possible Wednesday and into the next couple of days.