HOUSTON -- Tropical Storm Erin spun toward south Texas on Wednesday and is expected to make landfall early Thursday morning.

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The system was upgraded to a tropical storm on Wednesday morning.

A tropical storm warning was issued for the Texas coastline from San Luis Pass south to Brownsville.

At 10 p.m., the storm was 200 miles south-southwest of Galveston and moving northwest at 14 mph. Maximum sustained winds were at 40 mph. The center of Tropical Storm Erin was near latitude 26.5 North, longitude 95.7 West

Erin is not expected to become a hurricane.

"(It will have) 50 mph winds, tops. It has not gained in strength tonight," KPRC Local 2 chief meteorologist Frank Billingsley said.

"What that means is that within 24 hours the tides will go up 1 to 2 feet," KPRC Local 2 meteorologist Anthony Yanez said. "We'll see some minor beach erosion. We're not expecting anything much more than this because it is a weaker tropical storm."

Tropical Storm Erin is expected to make landfall near Corpus Christi at about 7 a.m. Thursday.

"We are not even in the cone of uncertainty. It extends to Matagorda Bay down the coast past Corpus Christi. Looks like it's going to head right into Corpus Christi, Aransas Pass area, but it could veer off toward Rockport and maybe as far north as the Palacios area," Billingsley said.

Galveston Expected To Be Spared From Direct Hit

While Galveston and Houston are not expected to take a direct hit, rain is expected to drench the area for a few days. There is a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms on Wednesday, increasing to an 80 percent chance on Thursday. Three to 5 inches of rain is likely but some isolates areas could see up to 8 inches, Yanez said.

Red warning flags are flying along Galveston's seawall, but the island city has not activated its office of emergency management.

"We don't think we need to open it yet. We're standing by. It can be opened at any time, but the weather report is sending the weather to the Brownsville area, not the island of Galveston," Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said.

"The main topic on this system is the rainfall and the possibility of flooding," said meteorologist Bill Read of the National Weather Service. "We're looking at a large area of rain and very high moisture content coming inland with this storm. A fairly large swath of the central coast, even up into our area, is going to get 3 to 5, maybe even 8 to 10 inches of rain where the core of the heaviest rain goes, which we're thinking now will be from the Matagorda/Port O'Connor area, southward to Corpus, on up into the Hill Country as the storm moves inland. That's the area where rivers are still in flood, so that's why it's a big concern today."

The extra cloud cover has kept temperatures down. The high on Wednesday was forecast at 95 degrees, dipping down to 90 degrees on Thursday.

Gov. Rick Perry said he was sending emergency vehicles and personnel to southern Texas in advance of the weather system.

"Because storms have saturated much of our state this summer, many communities in this storm's projected path are at high risk of dangerous flash flooding," Perry said in a statement hours before the tropical storm watch was issued.

He said he was sending 30 vehicles and 60 Texas National Guard members to Weslaco and San Antonio, activating three helicopter rescue swimmer teams and putting six teams on standby. Volunteer organizations were being prepared to provide mass care support.

The state's disaster response team has been mobilized and set up at Martindale Army Airfield. Members of Texas Task Force One are trained in urban search and rescue techniques.

"We've got food, water. We've got shelters, we've got showers, beds, everything that we need right here in order to go to a remote location and be self-sufficient as a unit," said Corey Ricketson of Texas Task Force One.

Many offshore platforms have been at least partially evacuated. Shell Oil said they have taken 188 people off their platforms and have temporarily shut down production at their natural gas field on North Padre Island.

Hurricane season runs from June 1 until Nov. 30.

Storms Move Into Houston Area; Damage Reported

Storms caused by the tropical depression moved through Deer Park on Wednesday morning, causing some residents headaches when several trees fell down.

One of the trees fell on Jason Pete's house on 7th Street near Center Street at about 4 a.m.

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Trees Fall On Deer Park House, Pickup Truck

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"All of a sudden I heard some cracking," he said. "It sounded like lightning. It woke me up and I seen nothing but lightning and thundering. I was kind of scared to get up."

Another tree fell on Hector Garcia's pickup truck.

"It's no big deal," he said. "It's just the windshield broke."

City crews used chainsaws to remove a tree that blocked a road.

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