Hurricane Beryl is hitting Texas with heavy rain and strong winds before it even makes landfall as residents flee homes and some areas have received hurricane evacuation orders.
The tropical storm is forecast to turn back into a hurricane before landfall is expected in Texas on Monday. The situation has been worrying officials so much that tourists in several coastal countries were told to leave ahead of Fourth of July celebrations to evacuate the area.
Pictures show heavy rain and boarded-up businesses circulating as people wait for Hurricane Beryl to pass. The hurricane has already caused at least 11 deaths as it made its way from the Caribbean on its way to Texas.
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“We’re seeing the outer bands of Beryl approach the Texas coast now, and 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. The storm was projected to make landfall around the coastal town of Matagorda, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) south of Houston, but officials warned that the path could still change.
Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief W. Nim Kidd stated that there will likely be power outages and advised all residents to preemptively charge all of their devices and portable batteries in case of emergency. Galveston Emergency Management Officials have ordered a voluntary evacuation for the island's west end. The order takes effect at 10 a.m. local time on Sunday, July 7. It applies to residents and visitors west of 103rd Street who aren't protected by the Texas city's Seawall.
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A press release from the city of Galveston read: "While officials feel the chances of tides above five feet are currently very remote, tides above that level could prevent travel on major roads and make it difficult for the city to respond to emergencies."
"Emergency management officials ask that residents realize if they decide to stay in a low-lying area, they may not be able to safely leave for several hours, and emergency services may not be available while tides remain elevated,” the press release continued, “Current predictions from the NWS have tides rising late in the day Sunday with peak tides on Monday morning around sunrise.
“One of the things that kind of trigger our concern a little bit, we’ve looked at all of the roads leaving the coast and the maps are still green,” said Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is serving as the state’s acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is traveling overseas. “So we don’t see many people leaving.”
Officials are worried about the damage Beryl could cause to the Texan area. The National Weather Service issued a storm surge warning for the area as well. Although Beryl remained a tropical storm Sunday as it churned toward Texas, it threatened to potentially regain hurricane strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall early Monday.
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. He recalled that his business had escaped flooding in a previous hurricane that brought a 20-foot (6-meter) storm surge, saying: “In town, you know, if you’re in the low-lying areas, obviously, you need to get out of there."
Farther down the coast in Freeport, Mark Richardson, a 64-year-old retiree, said homeowners were busy “trying to tie everything down” and worried that Beryl had people unsure about where along the Texas coast it would make landfall. He spent Sunday morning on the beach and said ocean swells were quickly rising, explaining: "The ocean is getting very angry, very fast."
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. The storm ripped off doors, windows and roofs with devastating winds and storm surge fueled by the Atlantic’s record warmth.
Three times in its one week of life, Beryl has gained 35 mph (56 kph) 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 shows the literal hot water of the Atlantic and Caribbean, and what the Atlantic hurricane belt can expect for the rest of the storm season, experts said.
Traffic was nonstop for the past three days at an Ace Hardware in the city as customers bought tarps, rope, duct tape, sandbags and generators, employee Elizabeth Landry said Saturday. She explained: "They're just worried about the wind, the rain. They're wanting to prepare just in case"
The White House said Sunday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had sent emergency responders, search-and-rescue teams, bottled water, and other resources along the coast. Beryl would be the 10th hurricane to hit Texas in July since 1851 and the fourth in the last 25 years, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.
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