Tropical Storm Beryl brought howling winds and torrential rain to southeast Texas on Monday, killing at least three people, flooding highways, shutting down oil ports, canceling more than 1,300 flights and knocking out power to more than 2.7 million homes and businesses.
Beryl, the season’s oldest Category 5 hurricane on record, weakened into a hurricane after hitting the coastal Texas town of Matagorda with dangerous storm surges and heavy rain before moving across Houston, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. The agency said conditions could produce tornadoes in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.
The storm, which was expected to weaken quickly as it moved inland, ripped through Jamaica, Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines last week in a devastating path. It killed at least 11 people in Mexico and the Caribbean before reaching Texas, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told reporters.
In Texas, a 53-year-old man and a 74-year-old woman were killed Monday in two incidents when trees fell on their homes in the Houston area. A third person, a City of Houston employee who was walking to work, drowned in the underpass, Patrick said.
Oil refining activity slowed and some production sites were evacuated in the state, which is the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the US.
“Those of you in Northeast Texas, be aware. You’re going to have tropical storm force winds, maybe as late as midnight or 1 a.m. You’re going to have flooding, rain and stay off the roads,” Patrick said.
State officials had yet to assess the economic damage as officials remained in a rescue position while strong winds continued to blow. It would take several days to restore power, said Thomas Gleeson, chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission.
More than 2,500 first responders were deployed across the state, said Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
After warnings that it could be a deadly storm for communities in the path, people rushed to board up windows and stock up on fuel and other essential supplies.
Strong gusts and torrential rain battered cities and towns like Galveston, Sargent, Lake Jackson and Freeport before dawn, television footage showed. By late morning, many fallen trees blocked roads in Houston as the worst of the storm passed, with sustained winds and some road flooding, leaving lanes of major freeways impassable. The city barricaded the flooded areas.
Crews using a life jacket and a ladder fire truck rescued a man from a truck on a flooded stretch of freeway, a video posted on social media by Houston’s local ABC station showed. Patrick said there are several other paramedics.
Floodwaters exceeded 10 inches (25 cm) in most of Houston, Mayor John Whitmire said.
“We’re literally getting calls all over Houston right now asking for paramedics to come rescue individuals in desperate life-saving conditions,” Whitmire said.
The storm strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane as it crossed the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall. But the NHC said it is expected to weaken into a tropical depression overnight and a post-tropical cyclone on Tuesday.
That was still enough to bring more heavy rain as it moved from East Texas to the Northeast on Monday afternoon, across Arkansas and into the Lower Ohio Valley on Tuesday.
overnight and eventually into the Lower Great Lakes on Wednesday, the U.S. National Weather Service said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the US Coast Guard have deployed personnel to assist in the search and rescue effort. FEMA has also prepared water, food and generators to support local response efforts, according to the Biden administration.
Schools said they would close as the storm approached. Airlines canceled more than 1,300 flights and officials ordered evacuations in beach towns. Small businesses in Houston, including delivery services and chiropractors, delayed opening or were closed Monday.
According to Patrick and a PowerOutage.us, more than 2.7 million homes and businesses lost power in Texas.
Several counties in southeast Texas — including Houston, home to many U.S. energy companies — are under flood warnings as storms unleashed nearly 1 foot of rain in some areas.
The closure of major oil shipping ports around Corpus Christi, Galveston and Houston ahead of the storm could disrupt oil exports, along with supplies of oil to refineries and motor fuel from power plants. The Corpus Christi Ship Channel has reopened, while the Port of Houston is expected to reopen Tuesday afternoon.
Some oil producers, including Shell SHEL.L and Chevron CVX.N, evacuated personnel from their Gulf of Mexico rigs ahead of the storm.
Marathon Petroleum Corp’s MPC.N refinery in Texas City, Texas, was hit by a power outage in the middle of the storm on Monday, the company said in a statement.
