The National Hurricane Center early Wednesday upgraded an area of low pressure it had been watching near the coast of South Carolina to Tropical Storm Bertha. A few hours later, the NHC said Bertha made landfall about 20 miles from Charleston with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, according to the NHC.

“Bertha is moving toward the north near 15 mph and this general motion is expected to continue through tonight with a gradual increase in forward speed. On the forecast track, Bertha will move inland across eastern and northern South Carolina later today and into central North Carolina by tonight,” according to the NHC’s 11 a.m. advisory.

Forecasters say heavy rainfall could cause flash flooding over parts of the Carolinas and Virginia. There could be rough marine conditions along the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas Wednesday.

Danville is under a flash flood watch through Thursday, with downpours expected overnight.

Along America Street in Charleston, residents awoke Wednesday to an intersection that had become a water-filled canal. Cars parked on the curb had water up to their doors, The Post and Courier reported. Garbage cans had spilled over and dirty diapers, magazines and food scraps clogged drains in the area, the newspaper reported.

Bertha is the second named storm this month. Tropical Storm Arthur formed over a week ago, brushing the North Carolina coast before it finally headed out into the Atlantic Ocean, but not before dumping 4-to-8 inches of rain in southwest and southside Virginia, causing widespread flooding along the Roanoke and Dan River basins. Those rivers are still swollen as Bertha makes her approach.