Hurricane Beryl makes landfall in southeast Texas

Hurricane Beryl made landfall near Matagorda, Texas, approximately one hundred miles southwest of Houston, on Monday morning around 4:00 AM CDT.

Hurricane Beryl making landfall as a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 80 MPH and gusts up to 100 MPH leaving thousands of people without power.

Potential storm surges between 4 and 7 feet above ground level were forecast around Matagorda. The warnings extended to the same coastal areas where Hurricane Harvey came ashore in 2017 as a Category 4 hurricane, far more powerful than Beryl’s intensity.

The National Weather Service expects Beryl to weaken to a tropical storm Monday and a tropical depression Tuesday, forecasting a turn to the northeast and increase in speed Monday night and Tuesday.

The storm reached the U.S. after leaving a trail of destruction over the last week in Mexico and the Caribbean.

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 fueled by the Atlantic’s record warmth.

Beryl battered Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane last week, toppling trees but causing no injuries or deaths before weakening to a tropical storm as it moved across the Yucatan Peninsula.

Before hitting Mexico, Beryl wrought destruction in Jamaica, Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Three people were reported dead in Grenada, three in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, three in Venezuela and two in Jamaica.