Washington  - Tropical Storm Edouard slammed into the Texas coast near the Louisiana border on Tuesday morning, pounding residents with with high winds and heavy rain.

The storm was expected to weaken as it moved inland, the National Hurricane Centre in Miami said.

The storm came ashore with 105-kilometre-per-hour winds, which had weakened to 95 kilometre-per-hour as Edouard moved inland. At 1500 GMT, it was located about 70 kilometres north-north-east of Galveston, the centre said.

About 20,000 homes had lost power, the Houston Chronicle newspaper reported. About 5.4 million people live in the storm's path, the US Census Bureau said.

Edouard, the fifth named storm of the hurricane season, was expected to dump between 8 and 13 centimetres of rain across central Texas. Authorities had warned of possible flash flooding and tornadoes. (dpa)