According to the latest data, Hurricane Beryl, which made landfall in Texas on Monday, July 8, has resulted in at least 8 fatalities, including 1 in Louisiana. As of Tuesday morning, over 2 million households and businesses are still without power.
Beryl struck southeastern Texas and parts of neighboring Louisiana on Monday morning. The reported death toll is rising, reaching 8 people as of Tuesday morning, with 7 fatalities in Texas.
In Texas, two incidents where trees fell on residents’ homes causing fatalities were reported. The victims were a 53-year-old man and a 74-year-old woman.
An administrative employee of the Houston Police Department was trapped by floodwaters while driving to work on Monday morning and tragically lost their life after their vehicle was submerged.
In southeast Houston, a man perished in a fire believed to have been ignited by lightning during the storm.
Another man in his forties in Texas was fatally struck by a fallen tree while operating a tractor when the incident occurred.
The reported death toll related to Hurricane Beryl has now reached 19. Last week, this powerful storm swept through the Caribbean islands before hitting Mexico, resulting in at least 11 fatalities.
Hurricane Beryl also caused widespread power outages. According to data from “PowerOutage.US,” tracking outages nationwide, over 2.7 million households and businesses in Texas are without power. As of Tuesday morning, over 2.3 million residents in the state are still lacking electricity, including 1.7 million customers of CenterPoint Energy in the Houston area.
In a statement on social media, CenterPoint Energy mentioned that they expect to restore power to 1 million customers by Wednesday night.
Prolonged power outages may lead to dangerous conditions as temperatures and humidity rise following Hurricane Beryl. In Houston, temperatures are expected to reach around 90 degrees Fahrenheit (about 32 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday and Wednesday, possibly exceeding 100 degrees (37.8 degrees Celsius) during afternoon hours.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) stated that Beryl is the earliest Category 5 hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. It made landfall on the Texas coast earlier as a Category 1 hurricane and has since weakened to a tropical storm. It is expected to continue weakening as it moves inland and could bring severe thunderstorms to the northeastern United States by Wednesday.