Hurricane Beryl made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Texas as a category 1 storm early Monday (July 8) morning, the National Hurricane Center announced via NBC News.
Beryl hit near the coastal town of Matagorda with maximum sustained winds reaching 80 MPH, resulting in at least 11,000 households without power after lines were downed, Matagorda County spokesperson Mitch Thames told NBC News.
“We have a tremendous number of tree limbs and power lines down,” Thames said.
No injuries have been reported at the time of publication Monday morning, however, Thames said a number of vehicles have been flooded, which was expected after the forecast called for high waves and storm surge.
“We’re not done,” he said. “If folks think we’re in the eye and the storm has passed.. it’s going to come back on the other side with strong winds, it will continue to rain.”
More than 300,000 customers were reported to be without power Monday morning, which has since dropped to around 138,000, according to PowerOutage.us. Beryl previously reached Category 4 hurricane levels as it barraged regions of the Caribbean before weakening to a tropical storm over the weekend and intensifying again overnight.
Beryl was forecasted to bring a “life-threatening” storm surge up to 6 feet, which includes “damaging hurricane-force winds” extending along the coast from Padre Island National Seashore to Sabine Pass Monday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center via NBC News.
Recent Comments