In the early hours of Monday, about 250,000 residents in Texas were without power.
The hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm after leaving at least seven dead in the Caribbean and Venezuela. It is now a Category 1 hurricane – the lowest – with winds of 73 to 93 mph.
The National Hurricane Center also issued a tornado warning for parts of Texas, including Houston. “We have to take Beryl seriously,” warned Houston Mayor John Whitmer.
Heavy rains and gusts of wind hit the city Monday morning. Footage captured Sunday night by a hurricane hunter from the town of Sargent, near Matagorda, showed heavy rains and coastal flooding.
“The combination of storm surge and tides will produce flash flooding in normally dry areas near the coast,” the National Hurricane Center warned.
Authorities in Nueces County, where the coastal city is located Corpus ChristiTourists who came to enjoy the beaches were asked to leave the city, while neighboring Refugio County — which has yet to fully recover from Hurricane Harvey in 2017 — issued a mandatory evacuation order on Saturday.
