The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

The National Weather Service in Lake Charles is monitoring a large band of showers and thunderstorms across southeast Texas this afternoon. Between half an inch and one inch has already fallen in this area. Southeast winds of 20 to 25 mph were gusting over 30 mph across our entire region. A tornado watch is in effect for southeast Texas and western Louisiana until 6 pm.

We are expecting 4 to 11 inches of rain across the region tonight through Thursday, with the highest totals in southeast Texas, and the lower ones in south central Louisiana. Widespread flooding will occur if this verifies in southeast Texas. Area rivers will also respond and reach moderate to major flood stage later this week or weekend, depending on where the exact heaviest rain falls.

The strong southeast winds will continue tonight into Wednesday. We have already seen scattered power outages across the entire region today, and that will likely continue intotomorrow. Winds should weaken by Thursday.

Coastal flooding will be a problem during high tides over the next several days. Sabine Pass, Cameron, Intracoastal City, Delcambre, and Cypremort Point will be at risk for water on roads during high tides.