Texas coastal residents told to expect power outages, flooding as Beryl moves closer to landfall

MATAGORDA, Texas (AP) — Beryl began lashing Texas with rain and intensifying winds Sunday as coastal residents boarded up windows, left beach towns under evacuation orders and prepared for the powerful storm that has already cut a deadly path through parts of Mexico and the Caribbean.

Although Beryl remained a tropical storm Sunday as it churned toward Texas, it threatened to potentially regain hurricane strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall early Monday.

The storm was projected to come ashore in the middle of the Texas coast around Matagorda Bay, an area about 100 miles (161 kilometres) south of Houston, but officials cautioned the path could still change.

Texas officials warned the storm would cause power outages and flooding but also expressed worry that not enough coastal residents and beach vacationers in Beryl's path were heeding warnings to leave.

“One of the things that kind of trigger our concern a little bit, we've looked at all of the roads leaving the coast and the maps are still green,” said Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is serving as the state's acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is travelling overseas. “So we don't see many people leaving.”

Along the Texas coast, many residents and business owners took the typical storm precautions, but also expressed uncertainty about the storm's intensity.

In Port Lavaca, Jimmy May fastened plywood over the windows of his electrical supply company and said he wasn't concerned about the possible storm surge. He recalled that his business had escaped flooding in a previous hurricane that brought a 20-foot (6-meter) storm surge.

“In town, you know, if you're in the low-lying areas, obviously, you need to get out of there,” he said.

Farther down the coast in Freeport, Mark Richardson, a 64-year-old retiree, said homeowners were busy “trying to tie everything down” and worried that Beryl had people unsure about where along the Texas coast it would make landfall. He spent Sunday morning on the beach and said ocean swells were quickly rising.

“The ocean is getting very angry, very fast,” he said.

The earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean on its way to Texas. The storm ripped off doors, windows and roofs with devastating winds and storm surge fuelled by the Atlantic's record warmth.

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