Dan Patrick to Texans in Beryl's path: 'Today's the day to move away from those areas'

"There's going to be someplace in Texas that, with these tropical- and hurricane-force winds, (are) going to have power outages," Texas top emergency officials warns.

Austin American-Statesman

State emergency officials expressed concern Sunday that too few Texans are moving inland in the hours before Hurricane Beryl, barreling toward the Gulf Coast, was expected to hit land as a category 1 or category 2 storm.

"We have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people who are spending their summer vacation, their holiday weekend (on the Coast) and 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," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said at a news briefing at the state's Emergency Operations Center in Austin.

"One of the things that kind of trigger our concern a little bit, we looked at all the roads leaving the coast and the maps are still green. So we don't see many people leaving."

Patrick is the state's top elected official while Gov. Greg Abbott is on an economic development mission to Asia and is not expected back in Texas until later in the week. Patrick and Nim Kidd, head of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, said residents and vacationers on the coast, especially between Corpus Christi and Galveston, are in what appears to Beryl's bull's eye.

"Today's the day to move away from those areas if you're concerned where the storm is," Patrick said. "If you're staying in place, be sure you're prepared. You don't want to have to go out tomorrow to get water or food or put gas in your car. It would be a good thing to do it today."

'There will be power outages'

Kidd warned that Texans hit hardest by Beryl, which was forecast to slam the coast around 1 a.m. Monday, are likely to experience flooding and can expect to be without electric power for an undetermined length of time.

"There will be power outages," Kidd said. "There's going to be someplace in Texas that, with these tropical- and hurricane-force winds, (are) going to have power outages. Now's the time to make sure that all of your devices are charged up that your phones are charged up your computers are charged up."

Texas hustles to prepare for Beryl

As Patrick and Kidd spoke with reporters, workers from numerous state agencies were in an adjacent room separated by a large window in the underground operations center where they monitored Beryl's march toward Texas.

Kidd said dozens of state employees worked through the Fourth of July holiday weekend to ensure that equipment and supplies will be in place where they will be needed most. He also said that his office has remained in close contact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make sure the state-federal response to the storm is coordinated.

Patrick also warned that the storm's effects will likely be felt well beyond the Coast. Earlier, he had issued a disaster declaration for more than 120 Texas counties, including those around Austin, where lives and property could be at risk because of the expected high winds and intense rain.

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