Hurricane Beryl struck the Texas coast early Monday after it regained strength over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico overnight, with forecasters warning that dangerous storm surges and flash flooding were expected.
The eye of the storm reached the coast at Matagorda Bay, which is about halfway between Corpus Christi and Galveston, the National Hurricane Center confirmed in an update at 5 a.m. ET.
Beryl's renewed force included sustained winds of 80 mph and an expected storm surge that forecasters warned would threaten human life, the NHC said. A hurricane warning was in effect across the Matagorda Bay, from Mesquite Bay to Port Bolivar.
“This is a life-threatening situation. Persons located within these areas should take all necessary actions to protect life and property from rising water and the potential for other dangerous conditions,” the National Hurricane Center said.
The storm is forecast to weaken quickly and become a tropical storm as it moves north through eastern Texas over the next 12 hours.
Storm surges of up to 7 feet moving to normally dry areas were possible along the coast from the Corpus Christi area to the Louisiana line, it added.
The storm was also expected to bring a deluge along much of Texas’ Gulf Coast, with as much as 10 inches of rain expected in some locations, the center said.
Texas state troopers prepared for the storm by filling sandbags in south Texas amid boarded-up homes. A growing number of counties in Texas — 121 as of late Sunday — were the subjects of state disaster declarations in anticipation of serious damage, the office of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement. Patrick is acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is out of the country on an official visit.
On Sunday, the Houston Independent School District announced that all of its campuses would be closed Monday and Tuesday.
A few tornadoes were possible along the coast, forecasters said, with the risk spreading Monday to east Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.
Surf forecaster Surfline said waves in Galveston were reaching 8 to 10 feet Sunday night, with dangerous conditions. The hurricane center called for "life-threatening surf and rip current conditions" for the next few days along the Gulf Coast.
Beryl's journey took it northwest across the Caribbean, at times as a Category 5 hurricane, before it entered the Gulf of Mexico, struck the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, lost steam, then aimed north for Texas while tapping the gulf's warmth for strength.
At 11 p.m. CT Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said data from National Weather Service Doppler radar and reports from an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter confirmed the storm's maximum sustained winds reached nearly 75 mph, upgrading Beryl from a tropical storm to a hurricane.
As it neared landfall, the sustained winds grew to 80 mph, the hurricane center said.
The storm was blamed for at least nine deaths reported last Monday to Thursday in St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada, Venezuela and Jamaica.
