Tropical Storm Beryl expected to slam Texas south of Houston at hurricane strength, bringing possible tornadoes, floods

Tropical Storm Beryl was set to slam into Texas south of Houston with hurricane-strength fury early Monday — bringing with it potential tornadoes, power outages and enough rain to float an ark.

The storm was expected to make landfall near the coastal town of Matagorda, about an hour-and-a-half drive from Houston. But the path could still change, officials warned.

Forecasters said the storm could drop as much as 10 to 15 inches of rain on some parts of the coast, with winds hitting up to 90 mph and storm surges reaching 6 to 7 feet.

“The official forecast has it making landfall as a Category 1 storm, give or take,” Cody Braud, a Fox Weather meteorologist, told The Post on Sunday afternoon. “It could be a little stronger than that, depending on how much it organizes in the 12 hours until it makes landfall.”

That kind of rain — mixed with an already-sodden ground — means flash flooding is very likely.

Tornadoes also could break out almost anywhere from the Houston metro area to the Texas-Louisiana border, Braud said.

“The tornado threat could be pretty significant as we get through the night and especially tomorrow,” he said. “We’ll have to keep a close eye on that. These tornadoes are really hard to track because they happen so quickly. But there could be a lot of them.”

Hurricane Beryl set to hit Texas but storm’s wrath to be felt as far north as Michigan, Ohio this week

Beryl, the earliest Category 5 storm ever recorded in the Atlantic hurricane season, brought the full force of the seas to the Caribbean islands through which it tore — ravaging Grenada, Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines — last week before throttling Jamaica and slamming into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

A hurricane warning has been declared for a large stretch of the coast from Baffin Bay, south of Corpus Christi, to Sargent, south of Houston, and storm surge warnings were also in effect. Other parts are under tropical storm warnings.

Texas authorities warned residents not to underestimate its power, even though it’s somewhat lessened from its muscular height.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is in Taiwan on an economic mission, issued a preemptive disaster declaration for 121 counties.

At a Sunday news briefing, Patrick said some of the thousands of people vacationing on the Gulf Coast weren’t watching the storm — or were downplaying its strength.

“We have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people who are spending their summer vacation there — holiday weekend on top of that,” he said, according to CNN . “

Beryl churns toward Texas, forecasted to become a hurricane again before making landfall

“There is a concern that because they’re not in their daily routine of watching the news or checking their Internet or checking their emails, that they may not be aware of this storm.”

Patrick said people should “move away from [dangerous] areas” today, if possible.

“Trust me, you don’t want to be in a Category 1,” he said. “You’re looking at winds 85, 90 miles an hour. You don’t want to be in that. You don’t want to be in 6 and 12 inches of rain.”

Those who want to ride the storm out should be prepared, he said.

“You don’t want to have to go out tomorrow to get water or food or put gas in your car,” Patrick said. “It would be a good thing to do it today.”

Some cities have called for voluntary evacuations in low-lying areas prone to flooding.

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More than 2,000 responders are prepared to respond to Beryl’s aftermath, including members of the Texas National Guard, search and rescue personnel tied to the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service and others.

Beryl’s outer bands had already begun lacing Gulf Coast communities with rain and wind Sunday as the big, sloppy storm nears.

“The weather should be going downhill, especially this afternoon and evening,” Eric Blake, a senior hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center, said Sunday morning.

“People should definitely be in their safe space by nightfall, and we’re expecting the hurricane to make landfall somewhere in the middle Texas coast overnight.”

Some coastal cities called for voluntary evacuations in low-lying areas prone to flooding — while Refugio County, north of Corpus Christi, officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for its 6,700 residents.

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

With Post wires

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