Two people dead, over two million without power as Beryl makes landfall in Texas

More than two million customers in the Houston area were without power Monday as Tropical Storm Beryl unleashed high winds and heavy rains on the state of Texas hours after coming ashore as a Category 1 hurricane, utility officials said. Two people were killed when trees fell on their homes.

Hurricane Beryl swept into Texas early Monday with heavy rains and powerful winds, knocking out power to 1.5 million homes and businesses and flooding streets with fast-rising waters as first responders raced to rescue stranded residents.

Beryl had already cut a deadly path through parts of Mexico and the Caribbean before turning toward Texas. The Category 1 hurricane hit land just before 4 a.m., then weakened to a tropical storm about five hours later. At least two people were killed. The National Hurricane Center said damaging winds and flash flooding will continue as Beryl continues pushing inland.

High waters quickly began to close streets in storm-weary Houston, which was again under flood warnings after heavy storms in recent months washed out neighborhoods.

CenterPoint Energy in Houston reported 1.5 million homes and businesses were without power. Flood warnings were in effect across a wide stretch of the Texas coast, where a powerful storm surge pushed water ashore, and further inland as heavy rain continued to fall.

“We haven’t really slept,” said Eva Costancio, 67, as she gazed at a large tree that had fallen across power lines in the Houston suburb of Rosenberg. Her neighborhood lost power about four hours earlier and she worried that food in her refrigerator would be spoiled.

“We are struggling to have food and losing that food would be difficult,” she said.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is acting governor while Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is out of the country, said crews cannot get out to fix power lines until the wind dies down. He also warned that flooding could last for days and the storm continues to dump rain onto already saturated ground.

“This is not a one-day event,” Patrick said.

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