Austin: Strong winds and torrential rain brought by Hurricane Beryl claimed four lives in the US State of Texas on Monday as more than 2.7 million people and businesses were left without power amid flooded highways and shuttered oil ports. More than 1,300 flights were cancelled in Texas before Beryl weakened into a tropical depression, according to the US National Hurricane Centre.
The NHC said Beryl, the season's earliest Category 5 hurricane on record, pounded the coastal Texas town of Matagorda with dangerous storm surges and heavy rain before moving across Houston. It swept a destructive path through Jamaica, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines last week. It killed at least 11 in Mexico and the Caribbean before reaching Texas, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said.
A 53-year-old man and a 74-year-old woman were killed in two incidents by trees that fell on their homes in the Houston area on Monday. A third person, a city of Houston employee going to work, drowned in an underpass, Patrick said. Oil refining activity slowed and some production sites were evacuated in the state that is the nation's biggest producer of US oil and natural gas.
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State officials had yet to assess the economic damage as officials remained on a rescue footing while powerful winds continued to blow. Restoring power would take several days, said Thomas Gleeson, chair of the Texas Public Utility Commission. Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, said over 2,500 first responders were deployed statewide.
Before daybreak, strong gusts and torrential rain lashed cities and towns such as Galveston, Sargent, Lake Jackson and Freeport, television video showed. By late morning, many fallen trees blocked roads in Houston as the worst of the storm passed, with persisting winds and some road flooding, rendering lanes on major freeways impassable.
Debris and flood waters from Hurricane Beryl cover the main roadway in Texas.
More than 2.7 million homes and businesses in Texas lost power, according to Patrick and PowerOutage.us. Several counties in southeastern Texas - including Houston, where many US energy companies are headquartered - are under a flash-flood warning as thunderstorms unleashed up to nearly 12 inches (30 cm) of rain in some areas.
Heavy floods in Texas, businesses affected
Flood waters exceeded 10 inches (25 cm) across most of Houston while areas were barricaded, Mayor John Whitmire said. "We're literally getting calls across Houston right now asking for first responders to come rescue individuals in desperate life safety conditions," Whitmire added.
Schools said they would close as the storm approached. Airlines cancelled more than 1,300 flights, and officials ordered a smattering of evacuations in beach towns. Small businesses in Houston, including package delivery services and chiropractors, delayed openings or were closed on Monday.
A drone view shows flood waters surrounding homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl in Surfside Beach, Texas.
Closures of major oil-shipping ports around Corpus Christi, Galveston and Houston ahead of the storm could disrupt crude oil exports, along with shipments of crude to refineries and motor fuel from the plants. The Corpus Christi Ship Channel has re-opened, while the Port of Houston was projected to resume operations on Tuesday afternoon.
Before arriving in Texas, Beryl killed three people in Grenada, three in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, three in Venezuela and two in Jamaica. Beryl's explosive growth into an unprecedented early Category 5 storm was a possible result of the hot water of the Atlantic and Caribbean and what the Atlantic can expect for the rest of the storm season, experts said.
(with inputs from Reuters)
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