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Bertha weakens to tropical depression after dumping rain along Gulf Coast

▶ Watch Video: See the damage Tropical Storm Bertha left behind on Gulf Coast

Bertha weakened to a tropical depression on Thursday night after moving inland near the border of Texas and Louisiana. Heavy rains are expected to continue along the Texas Gulf and South Texas.

High wind gusts are still possible along the upper Texas coast, the National Hurricane Center said.

Map shows projected path

Bertha, the second named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, has had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph after a gradual decrease since Tuesday night. The wind speed decreased to 35 mph on Thursday evening and is expected to weaken throughout the night.

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Tropical Storm Bertha was expected to make landfall along the northwestern Gulf Coast on Thursday, forecasters said.

CBS News

“Bertha is expected to produce total rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches with isolated totals to 4 inches into tonight along the Texas Gulf Coast and South Texas,” the center said. “This rainfall may produce isolated flash flooding, especially in urban areas.”

Bertha is expected to dissipate later Thursday night.  

Louisiana state climatologist Jay Grymes said Wednesday he expected some pockets of flooding, but added, “With luck, this will be an in-and-out kind of situation.” It appears to have been so.

Wind and storm surge were the main threats facing southern states in Bertha’s path, some of which closed parks, piers and certain low-lying roads near the coast as the system approached. In the New Orleans area, residents dealt with an uncommon combination of extreme heat and tropical storm warnings. 

Warnings no longer in effect

There are no longer any tropical storm warnings issued for Texas or Louisiana. The warnings for the Gulf Coast from Morgan City, Louisiana, to Sargent, Texas, have been discontinued, the center said.

Wind gusts to tropical storm force are still possible along the upper Texas coast during Thursday evening, the center said. 

“Water levels may remain elevated through the next high tide cycle along the Louisiana and Texas coastline but should subside thereafter,” the center said.

Bertha comes weeks after the 2026 hurricane season’s first named storm, Tropical Storm Arthur, which made landfall in June along the Gulf Coast of Texas. Parts of coastal Mississippi still recovering from Arthur’s flooding could receive heavy rain during this latest storm, too.

White House asked DOJ about new Reflecting Pool case against David Hearn

▶ Watch Video: Trump rebukes Jeanine Pirro for dropping Reflecting Pool charges White House officials have asked the Justice Department to weigh whether it is possible to bring a new criminal case against David Hearn, the former Olympian who was accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial's Reflecting Pool, after federal prosecutors moved to dismiss the indictment against him earlier this month, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, had charged Hearn with felony destruction of government property, accusing him of causing more than $1,000 in damage to the sealant that was recently installed at the bottom of the Reflecting Pool. The project to renovate the pool was championed by President Trump. The discussions between the Justice Department and the White House were reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.Earlier this month, however, federal prosecutors moved to dismiss the indictment without prejudice, meaning the case could be brought again, citing new information that the damage was caused by a "botched installation" by a contractor, not vandalism.President Trump criticized the decision, writing on Truth Social that there "may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!" "I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool," Mr. Trump wrote. "I don't know what she was thinking?"After a weekend of criticism from Mr. Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Pirro was spotted visiting the White House carrying a box full of evidence. Sources said the boxes contained all of the evidence collected from the Interior Department that exculpated Hearn and several others from criminal vandalism.Last week, a D.C. Superior Court judge formally dismissed the case, but punted on the question of whether or not to dismiss with or without prejudice, which could impact whether the current felony case could be revived. There is further briefing scheduled in the case for late this summer and early fall. The conversation between the White House and the Criminal Division occurred last week, one source said, and the discussions were focused on whether there was a way to bring the case potentially as a misdemeanor, which would not require using a grand jury. The conversations were exploratory, and no decision was made, the source added.After deciding to drop Hearn's charges, prosecutors in Washington moved to drop charges against three other defendants who were charged with misdemeanors for allegedly damaging the pool. The three were accused of destroying property of value less than $1,000. Michael Bromwich, an attorney representing Hearn, said in a statement to CBS News that it was "truly difficult to understand the enormous effort apparently being spent on reviving a case that was dead on arrival.""The case was dismissed because there was no evidence to support charging Mr. Hearn. That won't change with more people spending more time to figure out a way to salvage it. At some point DOJ should simply cut its losses and pursue actual criminal activity rather than continue to harass Mr. Hearn," Bromwich said. 
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