Deadly Beryl makes landfall in Texas as a hurricane

Hurricane Beryl made landfall on the Texas coast near Matagorda early Monday with a dangerous storm surge and strong winds, the U.S. National Weather Service reported.

The storm's centre hit land as a Category 1 hurricane around 4 a.m. local time about 135 kilometres south-southwest of Houston, with top sustained winds of 128 km/h while moving north at a speed of just over 19 km/h.

About six hours later, Beryl had weakened to a tropical storm, according to the National Hurricane Centre.

One man was killed in the Houston suburb of Humble when a tree fell on a house, trapping him beneath debris, according to Harris County sheriff's office senior deputy Thomas M. Gilliland.

Nearly one million homes and businesses statewide were without power hours after Beryl made landfall, according to CenterPoint Energy in Houston.

"Beryl's moving inland but this is not the end of the story yet," said Jack Beven, senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.

Acting Texas Gov. Dan Patrick had declared 120 of the state's 254 counties to be in a disaster area. Patrick is serving as the state's acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is travelling overseas. 

Rapid intensification in past week

Along the Texas coast, many residents and business owners took the typical storm precautions but also expressed uncertainty about the storm's intensity. In Port Lavaca, Jimmy May fastened plywood over the windows of his electrical supply company and said he wasn't concerned about the possible storm surge.

"In town, you know, if you're in the low-lying areas, obviously, you need to get out of there," he said.

The earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean on its way to Texas.

Three times during its one week of life, Beryl has gained 56 km/h in wind speed in 24 hours or less, the official weather service definition of rapid intensification. Beryl's explosive growth into an unprecedented early whopper of a storm indicates the hot water of the Atlantic and Caribbean and what the Atlantic hurricane belt can expect for the rest of the storm season, experts said.

Texas officials warned people along the entire coastline to prepare for possible flooding, heavy rain and wind. The hurricane warning extended from Baffin Bay, south of Corpus Christi, to Sargent, south of Houston. Beryl lurked as another potential heavy rain event for Houston, where storms in recent months have knocked out power across the nation's fourth-largest city and flooded neighbourhoods.

A flash flood watch was in effect for a wide swath of the Texas coast, where forecasters expected Beryl to dump as much as 25 centimetres of rain in some areas.

Potential storm surges between four and seven feet (1.22 and 2.13 metres) above ground level were forecast around Matagorda. The warnings extended to the same coastal areas where Hurricane Harvey came ashore in 2017 as a Category 4 hurricane.

Those looking to catch a flight out of the area found a closing window for air travel as Beryl moved closer. A total of 1,331 flights were cancelled and 505 flights were delayed as of just after 6 a.m. ET, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.

Closures of major oil-shipping ports around Corpus Christi, Galveston and Houston ahead of the storm could disrupt crude oil exports, shipments of crude to refineries and motor fuel from the plants.

The White House said Sunday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had sent emergency responders, search-and-rescue teams, bottled water and other resources along the coast.

The storm's centre is expected to move over eastern Texas on Monday and then through the lower Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley on Tuesday and Wednesday, the weather service said.

Beryl battered Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane last week, toppling trees but causing no injuries or deaths before weakening to a tropical storm as it moved across the Yucatan Peninsula.

Before Mexico, three people were reported dead from the storm in Grenada, three in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, three in Venezuela and two in Jamaica.