Tropical storm Bonnie heads to Carolinas coast

Coastal North and South Carolina braced for heavy rainfall and wind gusts as the National Weather Service upgraded Bonnie into a tropical storm, guaranteeing a soggy Memorial Day weekend for beach goers.

In an advisory Saturday afternoon, the NWS said the center of Tropical Storm Bonnie was moving toward the northwest at about 10 miles per hour. It placed a tropical storm warning in effect between Savannah River — right outside Savannah, Georgia, to the Myrtle Beach-area town of Little River Inlet, S. Carolina.

The system, which is likely to be slow moving after going ashore near Charleston, is expected to bring heavy rain inland and along the Mid-Atlantic coast into New England on Memorial Day.

Winds increased to 45 miles per hour. The NWS said the storm strengthened later in the evening, but by 11 p.m. the storm had practically stopped moving. Rain had already started to hit the South Carolina coast.

The storm will make beach-going dangerous, with storm surges, life-threatening surf and rip current conditions along portions of the coast before weakening Sunday, forecasts say. There's also the possibility of one or two tornadoes on the coast.

Central Texas, meanwhile, was still coping with the fallout from torrential thunderstorms and braced for another possible round of flash floods. One person drowned Friday and another is missing is Washington County, located between Austin and Houston.

Lisa Block, an emergency services spokeswoman in Travis County, which includes Austin, said officials there were still searching for two people missing from a vehicle on a flooded roadway.

The forecasts through the holiday weekend called for scattered or isolated thunderstorms in Central and Southeast Texas. But officials say they will be monitoring local rivers and waterways, which could rise out of their banks in the coming days due to the heavy rains.

“It’s not going to take very much rain to get us in those flood stages again,” Washington County Judge John Brieden said Friday.

The weather service said there is the possibility of more thunderstorms Saturday and into the evening southeast of Austin.