Storm Beryl kills three, knocks out power for 2.7 million in Texas
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[July 09, 2024]
(Reuters) -Tropical Storm Beryl brought howling winds and
torrential rain to southeast Texas on Monday, killing at least three
people, flooding highways, closing oil ports, canceling more than 1,300
flights and knocking out power to more than 2.7 million homes and
businesses.
Beryl, the season's earliest Category 5 hurricane on record, weakened
from a hurricane after pounding the coastal Texas town of Matagorda with
dangerous storm surges and heavy rain before moving across Houston, the
U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. The agency said conditions
could spawn tornadoes in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.
The storm, which was expected to rapidly weaken as it moved inland,
swept a destructive path through Jamaica, Grenada, and St. Vincent and
the Grenadines last week. It killed at least 11 in Mexico and the
Caribbean and before reaching Texas, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick
told reporters.
In Texas, a 53-year-old man and a 74-year-old woman were killed in two
incidents by trees that fell on their homes in the Houston area on
Monday. A third person, a city of Houston employee going to work,
drowned in an underpass, Patrick said.
Oil refining activity slowed and some production sites were evacuated in
the state that is the nation's biggest producer of U.S. oil and natural
gas.
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"For those of you in northeast Texas, be aware. You will have tropical
storm winds, maybe as late as midnight or 1 a.m. You will have flooding,
you will have rain, and you need to stay off the roads," Patrick said.
State officials had yet to assess the economic damage as officials
remained on a rescue footing while powerful winds continued to blow.
Restoring power would take several days, said Thomas Gleeson, chair of
the Texas Public Utility Commission.
More than 2,500 first responders were deployed statewide, said Nim Kidd,
chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
Following warnings that it could be a deadly storm for communities in
its path, people rushed to board up windows and stock up on fuel and
other essential supplies.
Before daybreak, strong gusts and torrential rain lashed cities and
towns such as Galveston, Sargent, Lake Jackson and Freeport, television
video showed. By late morning, many fallen trees blocked roads in
Houston as the worst of the storm passed, with persisting winds and some
road flooding, rendering lanes on major freeways impassable. The city
barricaded flooded areas.
Crews using a life jacket and ladder fire truck rescued a man from a
truck on a flooded stretch of freeway, video posted on social media by
Houston's local ABC station showed. Patrick said there were several
other rescues.
Flood waters exceeded 10 inches (25 cm) across most of Houston, Mayor
John Whitmire said.
"We're literally getting calls across Houston right now asking for first
responders to come rescue individuals in desperate life safety
conditions," Whitmire said.
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People look at a car submerged in floodwaters in the aftermath of
Hurricane Beryl, in Houston, Texas, U.S., July 8, 2024.
REUTERS/Daniel Becerril
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The storm had strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane as it crossed
the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall. But
the NHC said it was expected to weaken into a tropical depression
overnight and a post-tropical cyclone on Tuesday.
That was still enough to deliver more heavy rain as it moved
northeastward from eastern Texas on Monday afternoon, across
Arkansas on Tuesday, into the Lower Ohio Valley on Tuesday
night, and finally into the Lower Great Lakes on Wednesday, the U.S.
National Weather Service said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Coast
Guard had positioned staff to assist with search and rescue efforts.
FEMA also readied water, meals and generators to boost local
response efforts, according to the Biden administration.
Schools said they would close as the storm approached. Airlines
canceled more than 1,300 flights, and officials ordered a smattering
of evacuations in beach towns. Small businesses in Houston,
including package delivery services and chiropractors, delayed
openings or were closed on Monday.
More than 2.7 million homes and businesses in Texas lost power,
according to Patrick and and PowerOutage.us.
Several counties in southeastern Texas - including Houston, where
many U.S. energy companies are headquartered - are under a
flash-flood warning as thunderstorms unleashed up to nearly 12
inches (30 cm) of rain in some areas.
Closures of major oil-shipping ports around Corpus Christi,
Galveston and Houston ahead of the storm could disrupt crude oil
exports, along with shipments of crude to refineries and motor fuel
from the plants. The Corpus Christi Ship Channel has re-opened,
while the Port of Houston was projected to resume operations on
Tuesday afternoon.
Some oil producers, including Shell and Chevron, evacuated personnel
from their Gulf of Mexico offshore production platforms ahead of the
storm.
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Marathon Petroleum Corp's refinery in Texas City, Texas was hit by a
power interruption on Monday amid the storm, the company said in a
statement.
(Reporting by Tyler Clifford, Arathy Somasekhar, Liz Hampton,
Marianna Parraga, Georgina McCartney and Swati Verma; Additional
reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad, Susan Heavey, Brad Heath and
Daniel Trotta; Writing by Helen Popper and Daniel Trotta; Editing
Rod Nickel, Josie Kao and Sandra Maler)
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