Two dead as Beryl hits Texas with power cuts and flooding

Beryl had already cut a deadly path through parts of Mexico and the ­Caribbean before making a turn, sweeping ashore as a category one hurricane in Texas early yesterday, then later weakening to a tropical storm.

At least two people were killed. The US National Hurricane Centre said damaging winds and flash flooding will continue as Beryl continues pushing inland.

More than two million homes and businesses in the Houston area were without electricity, CenterPoint Energy officials said. Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick, who is acting governor while Greg Abbott is out of the country, said crews could not get out to restore it until the wind dies down.

Residents without power were doing their best.

“We haven’t really slept,” Eva ­Costancio said as she gazed at a large tree that had fallen across electric lines in her neighbourhood in the Houston suburb of Rosenberg.

Ms Costancio (67) said she had been without power for about four hours yesterday and worried that food in her ­refrigerator would be spoiled. “We are struggling to have food and losing that food would be difficult,” she said.

High waters quickly closed streets. In flood-weary Houston, where previous storms had already washed out neighbourhoods, television stations broadcast the dramatic rescue of a man who had climbed to the roof of his pickup truck after it got trapped in fast-flowing waters. Emergency crews used an extension ladder from a fire truck to drop him a life preserver and a tether before moving him to dry land.

Houston officials said they had performed at least 15 high-water rescues and more were ongoing. “First responders are putting their lives at risk. That’s what they’re trained for. It’s working,” Houston mayor John Whitmire said.

Houston was under a flash-flood warning for most of the morning as heavy rain continued to soak the city. Flood warnings also were in effect across a wide stretch of the Texas coast, where a powerful storm surge pushed water ashore, and further inland as heavy rain continued to fall.

Rosenberg police also noted that one of their high-water vehicles was hit by a falling tree while returning from a rescue.

Two people were killed after trees fell on their houses: a man in the Houston suburb of Humble and a woman in ­Harris County, authorities said. Hundreds of trees fell in the county, crushing vehicles and damaging homes, said a police spokesman.

Mr Patrick warned flooding could last for days as the storm continues to dump rain on to already saturated ground. “This is not a one-day event,” he said.

Beryl and the widespread power outages were just the latest weather problems for Houston, where nearly one million people lost power when deadly storms ripped through the area in May, killed eight people and brought much of the city to a standstill.