Hurricane Laura dumped rocks across miles of a coastal Texas highway when it arrived early Thursday morning, according to local reports.

Highway 87 runs along the coastline of the Bolivar Peninsula on the far side of Galveston Bay, tucked against the Gulf of Mexico.

The storm littered a 6-mile stretch of the road with fist-sized stones, Houston-based KHOU reported.

When authorities closed the road down Wednesday night, they also shut down the only way out of the area. Crews began clearing the highway early Thursday morning and reopened the road within hours.

When Hurricane Hanna made landfall hundreds of miles away last month, there was also an influx of rocks cast onto Highway 87 from the shoreline.

LAURA'S WINDS LEAVE DESTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA, TEXAS AS WEAKENED STORM MOVES INLAND

Flooding had plagued Highway 87 for years, according to ABC 13, and the state spent the last two years raising it. That work wrapped up in late May – just ahead of the start of this year’s busy hurricane season.

Part of that work involved adding rocks, also known as riprap, to the shoreline to try and keep water from encroaching.

State highway workers use earth movers to get the rocks, shells, sand and other debris off Texas State Highway 87, on the Bolivar Peninsula, Texas, along the beach on Saturday morning, July 25. Even though Hurricane Hanna made landfall several hundred miles south of the Bolivar Peninsula, the storm still had an effect on the area. (Fran Ruchalski/The Beaumont Enterprise via AP)

CLICK HERE FOR MORE WEATHER COVERAGE FROM FOX NEWS

Meanwhile, Laura is heading northeast, although it has weakened to a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.

At 5 p.m. ET Thursday, Laura was about 80 miles northeast of Shreveport, La., howling toward the Ohio and Tennessee valleys at about 15 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

Flooding, heavy rains and tropical storm-strength winds began buffeting parts of Arkansas. Tropical storm warnings were in effect in northern Louisiana, southern Arkansas and the western edge of Mississippi. Tornadoes were possible from central and eastern Arkansas into Mississippi through Thursday evening, according to the weather service.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

The storm knocked out power for more than 900,000 residents in four states as of Thursday afternoon.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.