The Gulf Coast faced the brunt of a fierce tropical storm on Wednesday, leaving residents in dire situations as flooding overwhelmed homes and businesses throughout the southern region.

In the afternoon, Tropical Storm Bertha struck St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, located approximately 40 miles east of New Orleans. The storm unleashed maximum sustained winds reaching 45 mph.

Gusts from the storm extended up to 160 miles from its center, causing chaos such as a Waffle House sign toppling over onto a vehicle in Panama City Beach, Florida.

Forecasts predict that Bertha will maintain its tropical storm status as it approaches the upper Texas coast on Thursday. Consequently, late Wednesday night, the National Hurricane Center expanded Tropical Storm Warnings from Cameron, Louisiana, to Sargent, Texas.

Meanwhile, a Tropical Storm Warning continues for the Alabama-Mississippi border and the Greater New Orleans area. Many parks and piers along the coast remain shut amid the widespread flooding.

Flood watches also remained in effect Wednesday night from eastern Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina. 

In West Virginia, Governor Patrick Morrisey sent hundreds of National Guard members to the hardest-hit areas in the northern part of the state after declaring a state of emergency for all 55 counties.

The state Division of Natural Resources has already been involved in 85 rescues, and 19 National Guard and state police helicopters were either out on rescue missions or standing by if needed, Morrisey said at a news conference Wednesday night.

Three shelters that were opened Wednesday housed a total of more than 100 residents, he added.

When he was then asked whether anyone was unaccounted for, Morrisey replied: ‘We don’t have an exact number but we are concerned about fatalities,’ adding that ‘as soon as we have more information’ officials will provide details. 

‘This is a time for West Virginians to come together to do everything possible, not only to pray for all those who are affected, but we´re going to need a lot of help in the days and weeks ahead,’ he said. ‘Let’s help these communities rebuild.’ 

Forecasters said up to seven inches of rain fell in West Virginia, with Morrisey claiming some parts of the state received 4.5 inches in just 37 minutes.

‘There´s no place for the water to go,’ he said.

Video and photos on social media showed submerged vehicles in parking lots, including at a Walmart in Weston where muddy water surged far into the store. Across a nearby highway, a hotel’s main floor was inundated.

Emergency crews reported dozens of rescues of people stuck in submerged vehicles. However, some rescuers were unable to get to locations where floodwaters had cut off access.

But West Virginia was not the only state that was inundated with flooding as the closure of portions of Interstate 79, US Route 48 and numerous secondary roads. 

In Alabama, vehicles were seen becoming trapped in the sand on the west end of Dauphin Island overnight as waves crashed onto the shore and water levels rose quickly, according to Fox 10. 

Some bystanders were then seen grabbing a shovel and digging around the wheels of an SUV in a desperate attempt to free it from the water.

In Tennessee, Lisa Rocca told News Channel 5 her home’s foundation was slowly eroding from the flood water.

And at Ailor Gap Farms in Maynardville, Tennessee, owner Dan Woodcock said the remainder of this year’s harvest was wiped out from the flash flooding.

He told 10 News how the creek behind his property rose quickly during the storm surge, damaging about $8,000 to $10,000 in crops.

In the more than 30 years he lived in the area, Woodcock said he had only seen the water level get that high once before. 

He also described Wednesday’s flooding as a once-in-100 year event, with the water rising four feet and taking out all of the crops in his garden. 

‘This event carried fallen trees from upstream that had just been accumulating,’ he explained. ‘The trees and the debris or whatever wreaked havoc on everything, just destroyed it.’

Even though Woodcock said he built the farm to withstand flooding he ‘forgot about the debris.’

‘I should have known better,’ he admitted. ‘I mean, I was raised on the Gulf Coast and hurricanes. I should have known debris is what destroys everything more than water.’

Woodcock now plans on growing another crop to reduce the huge loss he is facing. But by the end of the season, the family farm may still be $3,000 to $5,000 in debt.

Despite the setback, though, Woodcock said he is not looking for donations.

‘It’s a big number and I’m on disability, so I have a very limited income. That’s two to three months’ worth of disability checks. So it’s quite an impact,’ he admitted. 

‘But we don’t need too much here; everything we have is paid for, so we’re OK. We’re going to be fine.’

Instead of donations, Woodcock said he is welcoming anyone who wishes to help with the cleanup efforts – and is encouraging people to support him by doing business with him and other local farmers. 

The heavy rains on Wednesday were part of wide-ranging storms – which also produced reports of tornadoes – stretching from the Cincinnati area across New Jersey to the New York City suburbs. 

Damage from a possible tornado was reported in the area of St. Marys and Belmont in West Virginia.

Bertha is the second tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, after Tropical Storm Arthur brought heavy rainfall to the southeastern US in June.

But Bertha is now expected to dissipate inland in Texas by Friday, the National Hurricane Center said.

Meanwhile, in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Fausto churned hundreds of miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph.

It was forecast to gradually strengthen – with its swells spreading along the Baja California coast where it is likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip tides.

Meanwhile, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in North Carolina is urging local authorities to retain an illegal immigrant in custody following his involvement in a deadly hit-and-run. This tragic incident resulted in the deaths of three individuals.

The suspect, Javiel Pena Sola, a native of El Salvador, is accused of hitting and killing three individuals in a car on July 18 in Salisbury. After allegedly fleeing the scene, law enforcement officials, aided by a police K-9 unit, successfully apprehended him, ICE disclosed.

Tragically, two of the victims were pronounced dead at the crash site, while a third succumbed to their injuries after being airlifted to a nearby hospital.

“I heard people screaming … and they pulled the man out; and as they pulled him out, he started screaming,” witness Quindel Woods told WSOC-TV.

Sola’s vehicle was later found in a creek. He is charged with three counts of hit-and-run involving serious injury or death.

ICE has lodged a detainer with local authorities to keep him in custody.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said Sola was arrested in 2016 but was released. She said he entered the United States through Arizona in April 2022.

“Although ICE had arrested him in 2016, the Obama Administration RELEASED him into American communities,” she said. “These deaths were 100% preventable. Open borders and sanctuary policies have deadly consequences.”

Sola’s criminal history includes prior convictions for reckless endangerment, failure to stop after an accident involving damage to an attended vehicle, and driving without a license in Maryland in July 2015, as well as an arrest for escaping from custody.

After his arrest in Maryland on charges of escaping from custody, law enforcement officials in Baltimore honored an ICE detainer and turned him over to federal agents in March 2016. He was then released by the Obama administration two months later, ICE said.

In a statement on Wednesday, Chick-fil-A disclosed that a recent data security breach might have revealed personal details from a handful of their customer loyalty accounts.

The popular Atlanta-based fast-food chain assured FOX Business that they acted swiftly to secure compromised accounts and directly informed patrons who could be affected by this breach.

“We have recently detected a security breach that potentially impacts a small number of our Chick-fil-A One Loyalty members,” a company representative explained.

The company emphasized that as soon as the breach was discovered, they took immediate measures to mitigate the issue by securing and restoring the affected accounts while reaching out to potentially impacted customers.

The spokesperson further expressed the company’s heartfelt apologies for any trouble or worry caused and emphasized Chick-fil-A’s “commitment” to safeguarding the trust of its clientele.

The company notified potentially affected customers Monday after discovering suspicious login activity involving certain Chick-fil-A One accounts, USA TODAY reported.

According to the notice, “unauthorized parties” targeted the company’s website and mobile app between June 17 and June 19.

The attackers used account credentials obtained from a “third-party source,” the outlet reported.

The incident affected customers in Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, DC, according to USA Today.

The data that may have been compromised included customers’ names, email addresses, Chick-fil-A One membership and mobile payment numbers, the last four digits of payment cards and the amount of Chick-fil-A credit stored in their accounts.

Chick-fil-A said it reset passwords for affected accounts, restored any impacted loyalty balances and added rewards to customers’ accounts, USA TODAY reported.