BEAUMONT, Texas — The first named storm of hurricane season has formed and is just hours away from making landfall in Mexico and Texas is already feeling the affects.
Places like Padre Island, Freeport and Galveston are being hit with flooding from storm surge. Here at home we're seeing flooding at Port Neches Park.
12News StormTrackers confirm the storm won't actually make it to the Southeast Texas.
Chief Meteorologist Patrick Vaughn explains what can we expect over the next couple of days.
We can breathe a sigh of relief that we have no chance of getting hit by a storm but Southeast Texans along the coast are already seeing high tides, flooding and high winds.
"Alberto formed east of Tampico," Vaughn said.
Tropical Storm Alberto storm surge brings some street flooding to Sabine Pass
As the first tropical storm in the gulf nears landfall people living along the 400 miles of Texas coast are getting a taste of what experts call one of the most violent hurricane seasons.
"I woke up at 5:30 because the rain was hitting. So I opened the blinds and I was like, 'huh, the ocean looks closer!" said Dustin Leeds & Kristine Martin, who are visiting Freeport.
They're getting to witness first-hand the power of a tropical storm set to make landfall in Tampico, Mexico more than 600 miles away from them.
"Who told the ocean it could come in this far?" Leeds said.
In Corpus Christi, drivers are abandoning their vehicles and wading through knee-deep water.
"We got about halfway and we started floating down. And thank goodness, because the fire department stopped, they brought a little boat and everything, they were gonna rescue us," Corpus Christi resident Haley Campbell.
In Southeast Texas, Pleasure Island is already seeing high tides and high winds. Vaughn explained why we're seeing such intensity from a storm that's so far away.
"The winds are blowing around it out of the southeast bringing in water along the Texas coastline and piling it up," he said.
Vaughn says while the storm has a 0% chance of making its way towards us, we will still feel the effects as the storm moves inland.
"The winds are gusting, at times, up to about 35 miles-an-hour. And the storm surge maybe one two three or four feet along the immediate coastline," said Vaughn.
12News StormTrackers expect the storm's effects to last another 24 hours we'll start seeing improvements by late Friday.