Beryl has been downgraded to a tropical storm after it made landfall in the southern U.S. state of Texas early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane. At least two people were killed in the Houston area. The storm knocked out power to more than 2 million homes and businesses, causing flash flooding and sent rescue crews scrambling to save stranded residents.
Houston’s two airports, according to information from FlightAware, canceled more than 1,000 flights. That has impacted flights across the United States. According to FlightAware, some 1,479 flights were canceled nationwide, while 2,254 were delayed as of 12:33 p.m. EDT.
According to the National Hurricane Center and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, flood warnings were in effect across a wide stretch of the Texas coast.
Police in Rosenberg, a Houston suburb, encouraged residents to stay off the road. One of the suburb’s high-water rescue vehicles was hit by a falling tree during a rescue.
Authorities reported that the two known fatalities occurred when trees fell on two different houses. According to Precinct 4 County Constable Mark Herman, hundreds of trees have fallen in the county.
Residents without power said they were doing their best.
“We are struggling to have food and losing that food would be difficult,” said Rosenberg resident Eva Costancio during a power outage.
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick warned of days of flooding as rain continues to pelt the saturated ground.
“This is not a one-day event,” said Patrick, who is acting governor while the current governor, Greg Abbott, is in Asia on business.
According to a White House official, President Joe Biden has been receiving regular updates on the storm after it made landfall in Texas.
The center of the storm came ashore near Matagorda, Texas, about 160 kilometers southwest of Houston.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Beryl had regained hurricane strength shortly before landfall with maximum sustained winds of 130 kilometers per hour.
Forecasters said they expected 12-25 centimeters of rain to fall on areas of eastern Texas by late Monday.
Texas officials warned of flooding and power outages, and expressed worry that not many people were fleeing coastal areas ahead of the storm’s arrival.
Before impacting Texas, Beryl move through the Caribbean, killing three people in Venezuela, three people in Grenada, three people in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and two people in Jamaica.
Beryl also struck Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula before crossing the Gulf of Mexico and heading for Texas.
The storm set a record as the earliest to attain Category 5 strength during the Atlantic hurricane season that runs from June to November.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.
