At least two people were killed in the Houston area on Monday when trees fell on homes as Hurricane Beryl descended on Texas, before the system was expected to turn north toward Arkansas by early Tuesday morning.
Among those confirmed dead were a 53-year-old father and a 74-year-old grandmother, authorities in Harris County said.
The man, who was not publicly identified, was sitting indoors with his wife and children in Humble when an oak tree crashed through the roof and hit the home’s rafters, leaving him pinned underneath, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez wrote in a post on X.
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The rest of the family was unharmed, Gonzalez wrote.
The aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, in El Campo, Texas.
Daniel Becerril/ReutersIn Ponderosa Forest, authorities received a report from a caller who said “ a tree fell through the roof of her grandmother's room,” Mark Herman, a Harris County constable, wrote in a Facebook post.
“We are saddened to report that the 74 year old victim has been confirmed deceased,” Herman wrote. “Please keep her family in your prayers.”
The fatalities arrived soon after Beryl made landfall in Texas early Monday, bringing life-threatening storm surge and wind gusts up to 81 miles per hour after plowing a path through areas of Mexico and the Caribbean, where the storm left at least 11 dead in its wake.
Beryl blew into Texas as a Category 1 hurricane, but was later downgraded to a tropical storm.
By 10 a.m. central time, Beryl’s path was forecasted to turn north after pummeling Houston, and was set to reach southwestern Arkansas by 7 a.m. Tuesday, according to an update from the National Hurricane Center.
A damaged gas station in Edna, Texas.
Daniel Becerril/ReutersIn the meantime, the center warned of flash flooding through Monday night and rip currents creating “life-threatening beach conditions through Tuesday across portions of the northern and western Gulf coasts.”
“Life-threatening storm surge inundation will continue through this afternoon along the coast of Texas from Port O’Connor to Sabine Pass, including the eastern portion of Matagorda Bay and Galveston Bay,” the update said.
“Damaging wind gusts near the core of Beryl will continue to spread northward within the Tropical Storm Warning area, including the Houston metro area, for the next several hours.”
