Hurricane Beryl swallows Texas: Dramatic drone videos capture homes ravaged, major flooding and more (WATCH)
Hurricane Beryl struck Texas early Monday, leading to power outages for nearly 3 million homes and businesses, heavy rainfall, destruction and damage to structures, and tragically resulting in three fatalities.
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FollowHurricane Beryl struck Texas early Monday, leading to power outages for nearly 3 million homes and businesses, heavy rainfall, destruction and damage to structures, and tragically resulting in three fatalities. By Monday evening, it weakened to a tropical depression as confirmed by the National Hurricane Center. The storm, moving swiftly, posed continued threats as it headed eastward, potentially affecting several more states in the days ahead.
Officials at both state and local levels in Texas cautioned that restoring power could be a lengthy process, estimating multiple days due to significant damage from Beryl, which struck as a Category 1 hurricane. The storm downed 10 transmission lines and brought down trees, leading to widespread power line disruptions.
Beryl weakened first into a tropical storm and then further into a tropical depression, significantly less potent than the Category 5 hurricane that wreaked havoc across Mexico and the Caribbean the previous weekend. Despite its reduced intensity, the fast-moving storm's winds and rains remained formidable enough to topple hundreds of already weakened trees in saturated soil and leave numerous cars stranded on flooded roads.
As it pushed further inland, Beryl posed a tornado threat, with the National Weather Service confirming tornado sightings in northeastern Louisiana via social media. Bossier Sheriff Julian Whittington reported on Facebook that a woman tragically lost her life in the Benton area when a tree collapsed onto her home.
“We’re not past any difficult conditions,” cautioned Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, currently serving as acting governor in Gov. Greg Abbott's absence. He emphasized that restoring power would be a process spanning multiple days.
Houston suffered a severe impact, with CenterPoint Energy reporting over 2 million homes and businesses without power in and around the nation's fourth-largest city. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick noted that the company was mobilizing thousands of additional workers to expedite power restoration, prioritizing critical locations like nursing homes and assisted living centers.
Tragically, two fatalities occurred when trees fell on homes, according to reports. The National Hurricane Center warned of ongoing threats from damaging winds and flash flooding as Beryl moved further inland. Mayor John Whitmire of Houston confirmed a third casualty: a civilian employee of the Houston Police Department who was trapped in floodwaters under a highway overpass.
Here's a look at some of the drone videos, capturing the extent of damage, that have gone viral on X:
