HOUSTON    - Hurricane Nicholas slammed into the Texas coast early Tuesday morning, with meteorologists warning of life-threatening flooding. The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour, and was expected to dump up to 18 inches (around 460 millimeters) of rain in the Houston area, weather officials said. The US National Hurricane Center wrote in its latest advisory that the storm landed at around 0530 GMT. Earlier, the national monitor warned the storm was bringing “heavy rains, strong winds, and storm surges to portions of the central and upper Texas coasts”.