Storm watch issued for Texas

HARLINGEN, Texas – A tropical depression that formed late Tuesday in the Gulf of Mexico threatened to bring heavy rain to already-sodden Texas, as a tropical storm watch was issued for much of the state’s coast.

At 8 p.m. PDT, the fifth depression of the Atlantic hurricane season was centered about 425 miles east-southeast of Brownsville, Texas, and about 425 miles east of La Pesca, Mexico.

The depression is moving toward the northwest at nearly 10 mph. It was expected to turn west-northwest by late today. Maximum sustained winds were near 30 mph. A tropical storm has winds of at least 39 mph.

The National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm watch for the Texas coast from Freeport, south of Houston, southward to the border. The government of Mexico has issued a tropical storm watch for the northwest coast of Mexico.

Gov. Rick Perry said he was sending emergency vehicles and personnel to South Texas in advance of the weather system.

“Because storms have saturated much of our state this summer, many communities in this storm’s projected path are at high risk of dangerous flash flooding,” Perry said in a statement hours before the tropical storm watch was issued.