Tropical Storm Bertha Dissipates After 2nd Texas Landfall as Atlantic Clears

3 articles · Updated · WJXT News4JAX · Jul 24

Bertha weakened from a tropical storm to a depression within hours of its second landfall Thursday about 75 miles northeast of Galveston, then fully dissipated, leaving the Atlantic with no active tropical cyclones.
38 mph winds or less marked the downgrade, though tropical-storm-force winds had stretched 140 miles from the center and rain pushed inland along southeastern Texas after the storm first grazed southern Louisiana on Wednesday.
No deaths, major damage or widespread power outages were reported, but coastal flooding hit parts of Louisiana and heavy surf damaged a Pensacola boardwalk and toppled a Waffle House sign in Panama City Beach, Florida.
Thick cloud cover from Bertha also scrubbed SpaceX's planned Thursday Starship launch in South Texas, with the test flight reset for Friday under clearer skies.
Bertha was the Atlantic season's second named storm after June's Arthur; separately, Hurricane Fausto remained far offshore in the eastern Pacific while sending dangerous surf toward parts of Southern California.