Nicholas strengthened to a hurricane Monday night as it approached the Texas coast, with 75 mph winds and threatening to bring up to 18 inches of rain to parts of the state. Nicholas was a low Category 1 hurricane. The center of the storm was forecast to make landfall on the Texas coast "in a few hours," the National Hurricane Center said at 10 p.m. The storm was around 45 miles southwest of Freeport, which is south along the coast from Galveston, and was moving north-northeast at 10 mph, forecasters said. In Houston, where a large number of flights had already been canceled, officials urged everyone to be off the ... (full story)