MATAGORDA, Texas (AP) — Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas early Monday as a Category 1 storm, battering Houston with heavy rain and strong winds and knocking out power to 1.5 million homes and businesses as rapidly rising waters flooded roads and prompted rescue efforts.
Beryl has already Mexico and Caribbean It then headed toward Texas, reaching land around 4 a.m. High water levels quickly began closing storm-weary streets in Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, which was under renewed flood warnings after violent storms in recent months. The swept away area.
According to Senior Deputy Thomas M. Gilliland of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, one man was killed after being crushed by debris when a tree fell on a house in the Houston suburb of Humble.
CenterPoint Energy in Houston reported that 1.5 million homes and businesses were without power hours after the storm made landfall. Flood warnings were issued for a wide swath of the Texas coast, where a powerful storm surge sent water surging up the coast and heavy rains caused flooding inland.
Jimmy May boards up his windows in preparation for Hurricane Beryl, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (Photo by The Associated Press/Eric Gay)
Police in Rosenberg, a Houston suburb, reported that one high-water rescue vehicle had been hit by a fallen tree while returning from a rescue and urged residents to avoid roads. Video footage showed heavy flooding on roads in the barrier island city of Galveston, and a flash flood watch was issued for Houston as heavy rain continued to inundate parts of the city for much of the morning.
The National Weather Service expects Beryl to weaken to a tropical storm on Monday and a tropical depression on Tuesday before turning northeast and picking up speed Monday night and Tuesday. The center of the storm is expected to move over eastern Texas on Monday, then across the lower Mississippi River into the Ohio Valley on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Although Beryl is moving inland, it’s not over yet,” said Jack Beven, a senior hurricane expert at the National Hurricane Center.
Patty Richardson, who lives in the coastal city of Freeport, Texas, said she was weathering the storm in her 123-year-old home.
“We’re right in the middle of it. It sounds like we’re at a train station. It’s so loud and it’s been going on for four hours. We’re just praying that everything is OK,” Richardson said. “We can feel the house shaking… it’s creepy.”
Beryl weakened to a tropical depression after damaging Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, but reinstated as a hurricane late Sunday. The storm’s center made landfall about 85 miles (137 kilometers) southwest of Houston at about 4 a.m. with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (128.7 kph).
More than 1,000 flights were canceled at Houston’s two airports, according to tracking data from FlightAware.
The fastest developing storm Category 5 hurricane The storm killed at least 11 people as it smashed through the Atlantic Ocean, passing through the Caribbean and heading for Texas, with destructive winds and a storm surge that destroyed doors, windows and roofs. Record warmth in the Atlantic Ocean.
During the week following Beryl, wind speeds reached 35 mph (56 kph) three times within 24 hours, an official Met Office definition of a sudden increase in wind speed.
Beryl’s explosive growth and the resulting storm of unprecedented magnitude hot water Experts said they were looking at future trends in the Atlantic and Caribbean regions, as well as what the Atlantic hurricane belt might bring for the rest of the storm season.
Texas officials warned residents along the entire coast to prepare for flooding, heavy rain and strong winds, and hurricane warnings stretched from Baffin Bay south of Corpus Christi to Sargent, south of Houston.
A storm surge of 4 to 7 feet (1.22 to 2.13 meters) was expected in the Matagorda area. Hurricane Harvey It made landfall in 2017 as a Category 4 hurricane, far more powerful than Beryl.
Heavy rain is expected to fall across Louisiana throughout the day Monday, “leading to concerns about heavy rainfall and the potential for flash flooding,” National Weather Service meteorologist Donald Jones said during a Facebook Live briefing Monday morning.
Leo Cardin walks past a Confederate artillery display as he watches storm clouds roll in ahead of Beryl’s arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (Photo by Associated Press/Eric Gay)
Meteorologists in Louisiana are keeping an eye on lingering rain bands and “fast-rotating tornadoes” that could dump large amounts of rain wherever they occur, said Donald Jones, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
“The question is, where exactly will that be,” Jones said. “It’s very hard to predict more than maybe an hour in advance.”
Tornadoes are also possible in eastern Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, the hurricane center said.
People along the Texas coast were ordered to evacuate, boarding up windows and fleeing seaside towns.
The hurricane center warned residents to prepare for possible flash flooding in parts of central, northern and eastern Texas and Arkansas as the storm gradually shifts northward and then northeastward late Monday.
Evacuation orders sent residents along the Texas coast boarding up windows and fleeing coastal towns, and while many residents and business owners took standard storm precautions, they also expressed concern about the storm’s strength.
In Port Lavaca, Jimmy May installed plywood over the windows of his electric company and said he wasn’t worried about a possible storm surge. He recalled his business avoiding flooding during a previous hurricane that brought a 20-foot (6-meter) storm surge.
Clyde George, left, and his son, Chris George, right, board up their home in preparation for Tropical Storm Beryl, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port O’Connor, Texas. (John Shapley/Houston Chronicle via The Associated Press)
“If you’re in low-lying areas across town, obviously you need to evacuate from there,” he said.
The White House said Sunday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had deployed emergency responders, search and rescue teams, bottled water and other supplies to coastal areas.
Several coastal counties urged voluntary evacuations in low-lying areas prone to flooding. Local officials also banned camping on beaches and asked tourists traveling over the Independence Weekend to move recreational vehicles from coastal parks.
Category 2 hurricane Beryl slammed into Mexico last week, downing trees but causing no casualties, and weakened to a tropical storm as it crossed the Yucatan Peninsula.
Before making landfall in Mexico, Beryl caused devastation in Jamaica, Barbados, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, with three deaths reported in Grenada, three in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, three in Venezuela, and two in Jamaica.
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Valerie Gonzalez reported from McAllen, Texas. Associated Press reporters Corey Williams in Detroit, Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, Margery A. Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Julie Walker in New York contributed.
