Most of East Texas was under a flash flood watch early Wednesday after Tropical Storm Bill made landfall and then inched inland, dumping up to 7 inches on parts of the water-logged state.
The Weather Channel’s Kevin Roth said a "rough morning” appeared likely for commuters, especially between Waco and Dallas.
Between 3 to 6 inches of rain had fallen on east Texas by 2:25 a.m. ET, causing reports of minor flooding, according to NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins. A full 7 inches had already fallen on Bay City, some 80 miles southwest of Houston, Karins added.
Bill was downgraded to a tropical depression at around 1:30 a.m. ET.
There was also an isolated tornado threat to the east and northeast of the storm's path in east Texas, eastern Oklahoma and southern Missouri, according to Weather.com.
Dallas announced that that it would open an emergency operations center at 6 a.m. Wednesday, according to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. The storm system could park itself over the city during the day and make the evening commute a nightmare.
Forecasters projected Bill would move up to Tulsa, Oklahoma, later Wednesday. Eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas were also under a flash flood watch, according to the National Weather Service.
Bill made landfall just before noon on Tuesday along Matagorda Iskand with maximum winds of 60 mph.
The Houston area and a county southwest of Austin were hard hit by heavy rain and flooding in late May that was blamed in more than 20 deaths across the state.
