Memorial Day travel snarled as storms threaten flooding from Texas to Northeast

Memorial Day weekend travelers are facing a wet and potentially disruptive start to the holiday, with storms expected to bring heavy rain, flash flooding and travel delays across large parts of the country. The storms were already affecting air travel Thursday morning, with more than 1,000 flights delayed within, into or out of the United States and nearly 290 cancellations, according to Flightaware.com. In New York, LaGuardia Airport advised travelers to plan ahead after one of its runways was closed Wednesday because of a sinkhole. The runway is expected to reopen Thursday morning. “Budget extra travel time to arrive at the airport, park in your reserved spot, check-in, and get through security,” the airport said in a post on X. Those living in the mid-Atlantic, the Southeast and the Plains will see rain and storms Thursday, with some areas at risk for flash flooding through the weekend. A flood watch is in effect for parts of southern and southeast Texas, including Galveston and Corpus Christi, where rainfalls could reach 2 to 4 inches per hour. Flooding is possible in cities including Port Lavaca. Across the southern Plains to the Mississippi Valley, several rounds of rain are expected throughout the weekend, with widespread totals of 1 to 3 inches predicted. Cities that could see flash flooding through the weekend include Oklahoma City and Tulsa; Houston; Shreveport and Lake Charles in Louisiana. By Friday and Saturday, showers and storms are expected to spread into the Ohio Valley, the Northeast, the mid-Atlantic and the Southeast.