Tropical Storm Bertha strengthens, threatens Gulf Coast with squalls, heavy rain and storm surge

Tropical Storm Bertha strengthens, threatens Gulf Coast with squalls, heavy rain and storm surge

Tropical Storm Bertha is crawling along the northern Gulf as coastal communities in parts of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana brace for strong wind gusts, heavy rain and storm surge flooding. According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Bertha has begun to strengthen. As of Tuesday morning, it remained about 100 miles south of the eastern Florida Panhandle, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, and is moving northwest at just 2 mph. Bertha is currently forecast to continue to move northwest and make landfall as a tropical storm somewhere between southeast Louisiana and the Alabama Gulf Coast sometime in the next couple of days.