Beryl Leaves 2 Million Texas Homes In The Dark, Officials Expect More

More than 2 million homes around the Houston area were left without power on Monday as tropical storm Beryl crossed the state, bringing widespread destruction.

Beryl made landfall near Matagorda town earlier today as a category 1 Hurricane.

According to Reuters, so far, 2.3 million homes and businesses in the state have reported outages, many of them in the Houston area.

CenterPoint Energy, which supplies about 2.6 million customers, has initiated an all-hands-on-deck response to address the crisis. “This is an all-hands-on-deck approach for CenterPoint, our contractors, and the resources we are bringing in from other areas of the country to support our response,” said company spokesman Joshua Solis in an email.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is in Asia, said reparations can’t begin until the storm passes.

On Sunday, Patrick also declared 120 counties to be disaster areas, ahead of the storm.

State officials anticipate further outages as Beryl moves north. “As Beryl makes landfall, power and cell phone outages will increase,” warned Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd in a social media post.

The storm caused extensive damage across the Houston area, with reports of transformer damage and downed power lines coming from Pasadena, Spring Branch, Acres Homes, and southwest Houston.

According to the Associated Press, two people were killed after trees fell on their houses. Hundreds of trees have fallen in the county.

State officials have warned residents for possible floodings and strong wind, causing businesses around Corpus Christi, Galveston and Houston to halt operations. More than 1,000 flights have been canceled at Houston’s airports. 

The hurricane center also has warned for tornadoes and flash flooding in eastern Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.

Beryl is the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane and caused at least 11 deaths on its pass through the Caribbean to Texas.