Tropical storm Bonnie edges toward Carolinas on holiday weekend

Coastal North and South Carolina are bracing for heavy rainfall and winds as Tropical Storm Bonnie slowly heads toward the coast.

The National Weather Service said in an advisory early Sunday that the center of the tropical storm moving northwest at about 6 miles per hour, just in time to disrupt Memorial Day weekend plans for beach goers. 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.

Bonnie is the second tropical storm of the 2016 hurricane season and the first to threaten the U.S. coast.

The storm strengthened Saturday night with winds increasing to about 45 miles per hour. Rain already started to hit coastal South Carolina.

Forecasts suggest the rainfall will intensify Sunday, causing storm surges and rip current conditions along portions of the coast before weakening later in the day.

By that point, the storm will head inland and northward, moving past the Mid-Atlantic coast and into New England on Memorial Day.

In Central Texas, residents are still coping with the fallout from torrential thunderstorms and braced for another possible round of flash floods. At least three people remain missing after the heavy rain in Texas and Kansas flooded rivers, the Associated Press reported. Four people are dead.

Central and Southeast Texas could get scattered thunderstorms over the holiday weekend, but officials plan to monitor local rivers and waterways in case they overflow due to the heavy rainfall.

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