Beryl made landfall along the Texas coast as a Category 1 storm early Monday, unleashing a barrage of severe weather as it moved inland before weakening into a tropical storm still cable of widespread damage.
Through the morning much of eastern Texas was inundated with "life-threatening storm surge," torrential rain and powerful wind gusts up to 97 mph. The dangerous conditions prompted water rescues, disrupted hundreds of flights, left more than 2 million people without power and caused at least one death.
Beryl had sustained winds of over 80 mph as it made landfall at 4 a.m. near Matagorda, a coastal community between Corpus Christi and Galveston, according to the National Hurricane Center. More than five hours later, the storm weakened to a tropical storm, continuing to push inland with sustained winds at 70 mph, uprooting trees and knocking over power poles.
In a suburban part of Harris County, just northeast of Houston, a man was killed when a tree fell on his home and trapped him under debris, according to Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, who said on X that the incident was "Tragic!"
Tornado warnings activated when Beryl made landfall were still in place across eastern Texas as weather officials warned of possible twisters across Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.
Last week, Beryl carved a path of destruction across the Caribbean — leaving at least 11 people dead and destroying or severely damaging infrastructure on several islands. Beryl, which at one point strengthened into the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record, last made landfall on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula Friday morning. The storm then weakened into a tropical storm and then strengthened back into a hurricane before making landfall in Texas.
Developments:
∎ The highest wind gusts recorded on Monday as Hurricane Beryl moved into inland Texas was a 97 mph gust in Brazoria County, northwest of Houston. At Houston University in Harris County, an 89 mph gust was reported, according to the National Weather Service.
∎ The storm prompted closures or vessel traffic restrictions at multiple ports in cities from Houston to Corpus Christi. The ports of Corpus Christi, Houston, Galveston, Freeport, and Texas City said they closed after condition "Zulu" was set by U.S. Coast Guard captains on Sunday.
∎ Across eastern Texas, heavy rain and the ensuing flooding triggered water rescues as people became trapped in their home and vehicles.
Donna Radin said she was startled awake by the “very strong howl” of wind rattling her home as rain came down in sheets early Monday morning.
The 58-year-old travel agent lives in Deer Park, a small city east of Houston. Around 5 a.m., as the conditions picked up, she heard a generator blow just down the block, and soon her home lost power.
Huddled inside with her daughter, two granddaughters and five dogs, Radin said she's avoided the windows but can see "lots" of downed trees and the remnants of a fence that was ripped out of the ground and hurled several yards away.
"It's the most intense Cat 1 I've ever been through," said Radin, whose lived on the Texas Gulf Coast all her life. "I told my husband 'Our next investment will be remote controlled hurricane shutters' because this has been rough."
Hal Needham, an extreme weather scientist widely known to other locals of Galveston, Texas, as "Hurricane Hal", was up just after 4 a.m. on Monday to monitor the storm and livestream updates.
"We've had some pretty big squalls today with widespread power outages," he said. "I think the storm was a lot stronger than a lot of people expected."
Needham said he was also concerned that continuing power outages would leave residents vulnerable to the ongoing heat wave later this week. "This is the hottest time of the year," he said. "If people still don't have power, there could really be some issues with heat exhaustion, with heat-related illnesses, especially for elderly people with health conditions."
Although people from the area are hurricane-savvy, this storm hit earlier than most, catching them off guard, Needham said. "Only 3% of major hurricanes usually happen in June or July," he said. "Typically, Texas does not get a lot of July and June hurricane landfalls."
"I think people were really surprised by how hard and how quickly this hit," he added.
– Cybele Mayes-Osterman
Hurricane Beryl was 20 miles west-northwest of Houston, according to the National Hurricane Center's latest advisory.
The storm was hurtling north at 13 mph with sustained winds of 70 mph, down from 80 mph when the storm made landfall. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 45 miles from Beryl's center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 115 miles, according to the hurricane center.
More:Hurricane Beryl tracker: Storm makes landfall in Texas, see spaghetti models, path
Hurricane Beryl is expected to weaken as it moves further inland, first into a tropical storm and then a tropical depression. Beryl is projected to continue heading north across the Mississippi Valley and then the Ohio Valley, where it's expected to dissipate on Tuesday and Wednesday.
More than 1,000 flights across airports in Houston were canceled early Monday as Hurricane Beryl bore down on the city.
At George Bush Intercontinental Airport, nearly 1,000 arriving and department flights were canceled, according to FightAware. William P. Hobby Airport, a smaller airport in Houston, had more than 225 cancellations, FlightAware said.
Houston is a major hub for United Airlines, which is suffering the worst of the operational impacts from the storm so far. About 14% of United’s flights, around 400 departures, have been canceled so far Monday.
More than 2.1 million customers had no power in eastern Texas, according to the power company CenterPoint Energy. It’s unclear how many of those customers were in Houston.
On its website, CenterPoint Energy said the service was disrupted by 4,810 active outages.
According to PowerOutage.us, an outage tracker, more than 2.5 million homes and businesses across Texas were without power.
Across eastern Texas, officials in multiple counties said first responders were actively rescuing people trapped in their cars and homes amid Hurricane Beryl's deluge.
Ed Gonzalez, the sheriff of Harris County, which encompasses Houston, asked drives to "please stay off the roadways" as heavy rain drenches the major Texas city and its surrounding areas.
The police department in Rosenberg, a city just southwest of Houston, said it was conducting water rescues and warned residents about falling trees and ongoing flooding.
"Street flooding, downed trees, power outages and water rescues. All of that is happening right now in Rosenberg. Please stay off of the roads. A downed tree even fell (on) one of our high water rescue vehicles coming back from a rescue," the Rosenberg Police Department said on X.
In Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston, officials in a statement on X asked residents to "Please stay home until the storm passes." The statement from the county said "trees and debris are all over the roads, several roads flooded and most signals are out." It added that deputies were responding to "stranded/flooded motorists."
The National Hurricane Center issued hurricane warnings across much of the Texas coast on Sunday, warning that Beryl could bring damaging hurricane-force winds and 5 to 10 inches of rain. Rainfall of up to 15 inches was also expected in portions of the middle and upper Texas Gulf Coast and eastern Texas.
Water levels began to rise in coastal areas on Sunday and multiple local authorities advised residents to evacuate ahead of landfall. Officials also told residents to prepare for Beryl's impacts by stocking up on supplies, filling up gas tanks, and keeping up with updates, as the storm was forecast to cause heavy rains, flash floods, and potential tornadoes inland.
Acting Texas Governor Dan Patrick said Beryl "will be a deadly storm for people who are directly in that path," and issued a disaster declaration for 120 counties.
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Beryl is threatening Texas' largest city and the nation's fourth-biggest city, with another potential heavy rain event.
The greater Houston area — particularly the western half of the metro area — will see "significant effects in the form of strong, battering winds in addition to heavy rainfall," said meteorologist Eric Berger on the SpaceCityWeather blog.
Rainfall totals could reach 15 inches in some areas, the weather service warned, which could lead to flash flooding.
The city has already faced severe storms in recent months that downed trees and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes in the area and surrounding areas.
It's hurricane season.See which previous storms passed near your neighborhood
On July 1, Beryl made landfall in Grenada's Carriacou Island as a Category 4 hurricane and tore through the southern Caribbean Islands, flattening hundreds of buildings.
Later that night, Beryl became the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record. Driven by record-high ocean temperatures, Beryl's rapid strengthening stunned experts. Beryl was also the earliest Category 4 hurricane on record and is the first June major hurricane east of the Lesser Antilles on record.
Federal forecasters have predicted a hurricane season unlike any other, with as many as 25 named storms possible. It is the most storms the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has ever predicted in a preseason outlook.
Contributing: Jorge L. Ortiz and Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY; Reuters
