The United States was buffeted by extreme weather Wednesday, with Texas bracing for the first tropical storm of the hurricane season while the Northeast still faced a major heat wave. Southern Texas braced for a major storm to hit late Wednesday into Thursday, with considerable flash flooding likely, according to forecasters. The weather system, currently named Potential Tropical Cyclone One, is expected to be upgraded and renamed Tropical Storm Alberto by the time it makes landfall on the Gulf Coast of Mexico early Thursday. The National Weather Center office in Houston said at 4:30 a.m. CT (5.:30 a.m. Greg Abbott ordered the state Division of Emergency Management to put the Texas State Emergency Operations Center to a readiness of level 2, meaning it began 24-hour operations.

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Persons: Alberto, Greg Abbott, Michelle Grossman, Grossman, Michael Monds Organizations: Tropical, National Weather Center, National Hurricane Center, Ciudad Victoria, Texas Gov, Emergency Management, Emergency, Center, Texans, Texas, M, Service, Texas National Guard, Chinook, NBC Locations: States, Texas, Northeast, Southern Texas, Gulf Coast, Mexico, Luis, Rio, Corpus Christi, Houston, Monterrey, New England, Bangor , Maine, Syracuse , New York