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Tropical Storm Beryl’s howling winds and torrential rain has killed at least three people, closed oil ports, grounded hundreds of flights and knocked out power to more than two million homes and businesses in southeast Texas.
The background: Beryl, the season’s earliest category five hurricane on record, weakened from a hurricane after pounding the coastal Texas town of Matagorda with dangerous storm surges and heavy rain before moving across Houston, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
It has killed at least 12 people in the Caribbean and Texas.
US President Joe Biden is being regularly updated about the storm while administration officials remain in close contact with state and local counterparts, a White House official said.
In Texas, two people were killed in two incidents by trees that fell on their homes. Source: AP / Michael Wyke
The key quote: “Life-threatening storm surge and heavy rainfall is ongoing across portions of Texas. Damaging winds ongoing along the coast, with strong winds moving inland,” the NHC said even as Beryl began to lose strength.
What else to know: In Texas, 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, according to Harris County officials. A third person drowned, according to local officials.
The state’s energy industry, the country’s biggest producer of US oil and natural gas, braced for Beryl’s impact as the powerful storm slowed refining activity and prompted the evacuation of some production sites.
What happens next: Beryl was expected to barrel over eastern parts of the state through the day before moving into the Lower Mississippi Valley and the Ohio Valley on Tuesday and Wednesday, the NHC said.