Authorities are ordering evacuations in coastal towns in the storm's path, but fear that not enough people have been evacuated.
Hurricane Beryl has battered the Texas coast, where major oil ports have closed, flights have been cancelled and some residents of coastal towns have been evacuated from their homes.
The hurricane made landfall in the town of Matagorda on Monday with winds of 80 miles per hour (130 kilometers per hour), the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Registered as a Category 1 hurricane, Beryl is expected to cause “considerable flash and urban flooding” but will likely weaken to a tropical storm on Monday and a tropical depression on Tuesday, according to the NHC.
Before reaching Texas, Beryl had devastated Jamaica, Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, at times reaching Category 5 winds, the highest, toppling buildings and power lines and killing at least 11 people.
The storm weakened after crossing the Caribbean, but re-emerged and became a Category 1 hurricane as it crossed the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
'Deadly storm'
Texas Acting Gov. Dan Patrick declared 120 counties in the state disaster areas on Sunday and warned that Beryl “will be a deadly storm for people directly in its path.”
As the storm approached, residents rushed to board up windows and stock up on fuel.
School systems, including the state's largest in Houston, said they would close, while airlines canceled more than 1,300 flights and authorities ordered some evacuations in coastal towns.
Patrick expressed concern that not enough residents and tourists along Beryl's path were heeding warnings to leave.
“One of the things that worries us a little bit is that we have looked at all the roads that go off the coast and the maps are still green,” he said. “So we don’t see a lot of people going out.”
Houston Mayor John Whitmire, whose residents are under a tornado warning, said: “We have to take Beryl very, very seriously. Our worst enemy is complacency.”
Houston residents should know that “the conditions they go to sleep in tonight will not be the same conditions they wake up in in the morning,” he said.
Nearly 490,000 homes and businesses in Texas were without power, according to data from PowerOutage.us.
Internet connectivity monitor NetBlocks also reported “significant drops” in connectivity in parts of the state, including the Houston area, on Monday morning after Beryl made landfall.
Several counties in southeast Texas were under a flash flood warning as thunderstorms unleashed up to 6 inches (15 cm) of rain, with more expected.
Beryl is the first hurricane since NHC records began to reach Category 4 status in June and the first to reach Category 5 status in July.
It is rare for such a powerful storm to form so early in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from early June to late November.
Scientists said climate change likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of storms like Beryl because there is more energy in a warmer ocean for them to feed on.
