Tropical Storm Beryl’s fierce winds and torrential rains killed at least two people in southeast Texas on Monday, closed oil ports, canceled hundreds of flights and knocked out power to more than 2 million homes and businesses.
Beryl, the earliest Category 5 hurricane of the season, weakened after hitting the Texas coastal city of Matagorda with dangerous storm surge and heavy rainfall before moving toward Houston, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
The storm, which was expected to weaken rapidly as it moved inland, followed a destructive path across Jamaica, Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines last week. It has killed at least 12 people in the Caribbean and Texas.
In Texas, a 53-year-old man and a 74-year-old woman were killed when trees fell on their homes in two incidents in the Houston area on Monday, according to Harris County officials.
The state’s energy industry, the nation’s biggest producer of U.S. oil and natural gas, was bracing for Beryl’s impact, as the powerful storm slowed refining activities and forced the evacuation of some production sites.
“Life-threatening storm surge and heavy rainfall continue to affect many parts of Texas. Damaging winds are continuing along the coast, and stronger winds are moving inland,” the NHC said. However, Beryl has begun to lose strength.
Following warnings that the storm could be deadly for communities in its path, residents closed their windows and stocked up on fuel and other essential items.
Television footage showed strong winds and torrential rain lashing cities and towns such as Galveston, Sargent, Lake Jackson and Freeport before dawn. By morning, many fallen trees blocked roads in Houston as the worst of the storm had passed, with persistent winds blowing and some streets flooded, leaving lanes of major freeways impassable. The city barricaded flooded areas.
In a video posted on social media by Houston’s local ABC station, crews using a fire truck equipped with life jackets and ladders rescued a man from a truck on a flooded section of the freeway.
In a late morning press conference, Houston Mayor John Whitmire urged people to stay put. He said floodwaters had risen to more than 10 inches (25 cm) in most parts of the city.
“Right now we’re receiving calls from people in Houston asking first responders to rescue people trapped in extremely difficult conditions in order to protect their lives,” Whitmire said.
The storm had strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane after crossing the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. But the NHC said it is now expected to weaken rapidly as it moves over land, as hurricanes usually do, before becoming a tropical depression on Tuesday.
NHC said Beryl is expected to remain over eastern portions of the state throughout the day and then move toward the Lower Mississippi Valley and Ohio Valley on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“People in Beryl’s path should not let their guard down this week,” AccuWeather said in a statement, warning of possible tornadoes as far as Ohio and potential flooding as far north as Detroit.
A White House official said President Joe Biden was being briefed regularly on the storm, while administration officials remained in close contact with state and local counterparts.
According to the Biden administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the US Coast Guard have deployed personnel to assist in search and rescue efforts, with FEMA also preparing water, food and generators to boost local response efforts.
Schools said they would close as the storm approached. Airlines canceled more than 1,300 flights, and officials ordered evacuations in seaside towns. Small businesses in Houston, including package delivery services and chiropractors, delayed openings or remained closed on Monday.
More than 2 million homes and businesses in Texas have lost power, according to data from local utilities and PowerOutage.us.
Flash flood warnings were issued in several counties in southeastern Texas – including Houston, home to many U.S. energy companies headquartered there – as the storm dumped as much as 12 inches (30 cm) of rain in some areas.
Resident Gary Short said he is most worried about potential flooding, which the NHC warned could hit parts of Texas by Monday night.
“The rain is what worries me the most,” he said as he filled up petrol at a service station on Sunday. “Other than that, I’m not too worried. Just getting ready.”
The closure of major oil shipping ports around Corpus Christi, Galveston, and Houston ahead of the storm could disrupt crude oil exports as well as supplies of crude oil to refineries and motor fuel from the plants.
Some oil producers, including Shell and Chevron, evacuated their workers from offshore production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of the storm.
A storm damaged power supplies at Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s refinery in Texas City, Texas, on Monday, the company said in a statement.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
