One person has been killed after Storm Beryl hit the Texas coast, forcing evacuations and port closures and causing power cuts. The weather system had already killed 11 people in the Caribbean.
Texas officials told coastal residents to expect power outages and flooding as Beryl regained hurricane strength before making landfall early MondayImage: Eric Gay/AP Photo/picture alliance
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Hurricane Beryl made landfall on Monday on the coast of the southern US state of Texas near the town of Matagorda.
The Category 5 hurricane left nearly two million homes and businesses without power, forced hundreds of flight cancellations, closed oil ports and forced evacuations.
One 53-year-old man was confirmed to have been killed when an oak tree fell on the roof of his house where he was sitting out the storm with his wife and children, who were unharmed, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that the storm moved over land at around 4 a.m. Central Standard Time, saying that the hurricane was about 85 miles (135 kilometers) south-west of Houston, packing maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph).
Residents hunker down
Residents on the Texas coast boarded up windows and evacuated beach towns.
"We have to take Beryl very, very seriously. Our worst enemy is complacency," Houston Mayor John Whitmire said late Sunday.
He added that he wanted residents in Houston "to know the conditions that you go to sleep under tonight will not be the same that you wake up to in the morning."
Major ports close operations
The largest ports in Texas suspended operations and vessel traffic on Sunday as the threat from Hurricane Beryl loomed.
The ports of Corpus Christi, Houston, Galveston, Freeport and Texas City said they shut down after condition "Zulu" was set by Coast Guard captains on Sunday.
Corpus Christ is the leading crude oil export hub in the country. Texas City and Freeport are also major centers for shipping oil and refined products on the US Gulf Coast.
Port closures could bring a temporary stop to crude exports, oil shipments to refineries and motor fuels from those hubs.
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What else do we know about the storm?
A hurricane warning was declared for a large stretch of the Texan coast. Tropical storm warnings were issued for other areas.
Texas officials warned coastal residents to prepare for possible flooding, heavy rain and wind.
Hurricane Beryl rips through Caribbean
Though slightly weakened, a destructive Hurricane Beryl is still on its way through the Caribbean and is now heading for Jamaica. Devastating winds and flooding have smashed houses and ships, killing at least six people.
Image: Ricardo Mazalan/AP Photo/picture alliance
Smashing records
Hurricane Beryl, seen here making landfall in Barbados, is the first dangerous hurricane of the season. Fueled by record warm waters, it strengthened into a top-level Category 5 storm late on Monday — the earliest Category 5 storm in the Atlantic on record, according to the National Hurricane Center in the US and the World Meteorological Organization. It has since weakened to a Category 4.
Image: CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/Getty Images
'Potentially catastrophic'
Barbados appeared to have been spared the worst of the storm but was still hit with high winds and pelting rain. The storm has developed into a "potentially catastrophic" hurricane with wind speeds of up to 240 kilometers per hour (150 miles per hour), the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday evening.
Image: CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/Getty Images
State of emergency
In just over 24 hours, Beryl developed from a tropical storm on Sunday into a Category 5 hurricane. Authorities have declared a state of emergency in Tobago, the smaller of the two islands that make up Trinidad and Tobago (seen above), with schools ordered closed and flights canceled.
Image: Andrea De Silva/REUTERS
Island of Carriacou 'flattened'
Already as a Category 4 hurricane, Beryl lay waste to the port of Bridgetown on Barbados. Grenada's Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said the island of Carriacou was "flattened" in half an hour, with water, food and baby formula now in short supply. An emergency team was expected to arrive in Carriacou on Tuesday morning.
Image: Ricardo Mazalan/AP Photo/picture alliance
Flooding in Venezuela
In Venezuela's northern state of Sucre, Beryl brought heavy rain and flooding. Venezuela's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, was injured after a gust of wind knocked down tree during her visit to the disaster area. "She was hit hard, but she is conscious," President Nicolas Maduro said in a speech to supporters.
Image: VICTOR GONZALEZ/AFP/Getty Images
Devastating force
Union Island, one of the southernmost islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, was hit especially hard. Around 90% of the island's homes were heavily damaged or destroyed, said Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves on Tuesday, who has promised to rebuild. The full extent of the storm damage is still unknown.
Image: The Agency For Public Information St. Vincent and the Grenadines/Reuters
Escaping with their lives
These residents of Union Island were able to find refuge in Kingstown, on the northern island of St. Vincent. But the situation remains tense: throughout the southeast Caribbean, streets are littered with trees and other debris. Electricity was disrupted everywhere on Tuesday, and communication between the islands remains difficult.
As the cleanup begins on Barbados, the storm continues to move. Beryl is expected to remain an extremely dangerous hurricane as it continues its path across the Caribbean. According to forecasts, it will pass just south of Jamaica and reach Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula by Thursday, where it could hit the popular beach resorts of Cancun and Playa del Carmen.
Image: RANDY BROOKS/AFP/Getty Images
Getting ready in Jamaica
Ahead of the storm in Kingston, Jamaica, these shoppers rushed to stock up on essential supplies. "I urge all Jamaicans to stock up on food, batteries, candles, and water," said Prime Minister Andrew Holness on X. The hurricane is expected to hit the island on Wednesday, he added, declaring a state of emergency and 12-hour curfew from 6 a.m. local time.
Image: Gilbert Bellamy/REUTERS
Empty shelves
In Cancun, Mexico, meanwhile, some stores were already almost completely cleared out of non-perishable food.
Image: Paola Chiomante/Reuters
Historic hurricane season?
Weather experts are already talking about a historic hurricane season. Beryl has already broken several records, including marking the farthest east that a hurricane has formed in the Atlantic in June, said hurricane researcher Philip Klotzbach of Colorado State University.
In addition to the high water temperatures in the Atlantic, the hurricane season could be fueled by the expected onset of the climate phenomenon La Nina, a phase of cooler water in the Pacific. Climate change also plays a role: global warming increases the likelihood of more destructive storms.
Image: Ricardo Mazalan/AP Photo/picture alliance
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"We're expecting the storm to make landfall somewhere on the Texas coast sometime on Monday if the current forecast is correct," NHC specialist Jack Beven was cited by the Associated Press news agency as saying.
"Should that happen, it'll most likely be a Category 1 hurricane," he said.
It weakened to a tropical storm as it passed through southeastern Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and is expected to do so again in Texas as it moves inland.
"Beryl is expected to weaken to a tropical storm later today and to a tropical depression on Tuesday," the NHC said on Monday. "Steady-to-rapid weakening is expected as the center moves inland."
The United Nations' weather and climate agency WMO said Beryl developed into a category 5 storm substantially earlier than expected.
Tropical cyclones gain most of their energy from the evaporative heat of the water vapor they pick up over the ocean, meaning that warming sea temperatures due to climate change are creating better conditions for the emergence of hurricanes.
