The National Hurricane Center has given a system in the northern Gulf of Mexico a 40 percent chance for tropical development Monday through Thursday, according to the National Weather Service in Lake Charles. 

The NWS is forecasting 4 to 5 inches of rain along the Interstate 10 corridor south to the coast of southeast Texas and southwest and central Louisiana. The weather is the result of a tropical wave near the southern Bahamas is forecast to cross Florida today and go into the eastern Gulf of Mexico by Monday. 

The NWS also reported Tropical Storm Florence forming far out in the Atlantic, a system has a chance to become a hurricane over the next five days. 

“Right now we’re paying more attention to the tropical storm crossing Florida,” Iberia Parish Homeland Security Director Prescott Marshall said Saturday. 

The NWS is forecasting 2 to 3 inches of rain across east Texas and central Louisiana. Marshall said Iberia Parish leaders will participate in a conference call today to determine the chance of it affecting Iberia Parish. 

The NWS is predicting up to 10 inches of rain from the storm, and wherever the heaviest rains fall will be the highest risk for flooding as well. 

As far as the potential hurricane, Marshall said forecasters are focusing their attention the tropical storm at the moment. 

“They can’t rule it out, but it’s at least a week away,” Marshall said. “We’re more focused on the tropical storm.”