Power started to come back for some of the millions of homes and businesses left in the dark when Hurricane Beryl slammed into the Houston area, while the storm – which killed several people before weakening – moved east, spawning suspected tornadoes and causing more damage.
Beryl was blamed for the deaths of at least seven people in the Houston area on Monday, officials said. Three of those people were killed by fallen trees, one died in a fire, two drowned, and a civilian police department employee died after being trapped in high water while driving to work.
One person died in north-west Louisiana during the storm when a tree fell on a home, according to authorities.
After a peak Monday of more than 2.7 million customers around Houston without power, the numbers improved with more than 2.3m homes and businesses lacking electricity by Tuesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us. The lack of cooling to people’s homes, downed power lines and non-functioning traffic lights led officials to ask residents to stay home if possible.
“Houstonians need to know we’re working around the clock so you will be safe,” the mayor, John Whitmire, said on Monday at a media briefing, urging residents to also know the dangers of high water, to stay hydrated and to check on their neighbors.
Beryl later on Monday weakened into a tropical depression and by Tuesday morning the National Weather Service (NWS) said it was about 95 miles (155km) north of Shreveport, Louisiana, moving north-east with maximum sustained wind speeds near 30mph (48km/h). Its strength was not expected to change much in the next day or two.
While weakened, Beryl threatened to unleash more harsh weather over several other states in coming days. The storm was expected to bring heavy rainfall and possible flash flooding from the lower and mid-Mississippi Valley to the Great Lakes on Tuesday into Wednesday, the NWS said.
A flood watch was in effect for parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, and tornadoes were possible through the early morning across parts of the mid-south. A few tornadoes were possible from midday to the early evening in Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, according to the NWS.
The storm still packed a punch, and the NWS confirmed on social media on Monday evening that tornadoes had been spotted in north-eastern Louisiana. The Bossier sheriff, Julian Whittington, said in a Facebook post that a woman was killed in the Benton area when a tree fell on her home.
Dozens of tornado warnings were issued in Louisiana and Arkansas on Monday evening.
Texas state and local officials warned it could take several days to fully restore power after Beryl came ashore as a category 1 hurricane, toppled 10 transmission lines and knocked down trees that took down power lines.
Beryl on Tuesday was far less powerful than the category 5 behemoth – the earliest on record in the Atlantic basin – that previously tore a deadly path of destruction through parts of Mexico and the Caribbean.
But its winds and rains still knocked down hundreds of trees that had already been teetering in water-saturated earth, and stranded dozens of cars on flooded roadways.
The loss of power was an all-too familiar experience for Houston: powerful storms had just ripped through the area in May, killing eight people, leaving nearly 1 million without power and flooding numerous streets.
Power crews were working to restore service as quickly as possible, an urgent priority for homes also left without air conditioning in the middle of summer. Temperatures in the 90s Fahrenheit (above 32.2C) were expected on Tuesday. The NWS issued a heat advisory that said the area heat index could reach 105F (40.5C).
The state was opening cooling centers as well as food and water distribution centers, said Nim Kidd, chief of state emergency operations.
Beryl was supercharged by extremely hot ocean temperatures resulting from the burning of fossil, according to experts. Its rains pounded Houston and other areas of the coast on Monday, closing streets in neighborhoods that had already been washed out by previous storms. Houston officials reported at least 25 water rescues by Monday afternoon, mostly for people with vehicles stuck in flood waters.
Associated Press contributed reporting
