Beryl’s Path left at least 10 dead and over 1.7 million without power

With many Texans still without power late Tuesday, Beryl—now a post-tropical cyclone—was blamed for at least ten U.S. fatalities.

While cleanup, recovery, and restoration efforts were under way in Houston and along the state’s Gulf Coast, at least nine individuals in Texas and one person in Louisiana have passed away.

The National Hurricane Center reported that Beryl, which made landfall on Monday as a Category 1 hurricane, was still weakening and sending heavy rain northward to portions of the Missouri and Mississippi valleys on its way to the Great Lakes and northern New York on Wednesday.

The storm’s remnants, located 15 miles to the west-northwest of Indianapolis, were dubbed a post-tropical cyclone by federal forecasters on Tuesday. Federal forecasters reported that portions of the front passed over St. Louis, Missouri, on Tuesday and were predicted to move out overnight.

Even while its 30 mph winds were far less powerful than their 80 mph gusts when it made landfall early on Monday, scientists said it may still dump 2 to 4 inches of rain over night.

With the National Hurricane Center reducing its estimate from “several” tornadoes likely in various states to “a couple of tornadoes” possibly in the Ohio Valley overnight, concerns about potential tornadoes linked to the system’s unstable air were waning late Tuesday.

Officials in Texas were still tallying the deceased as of Tuesday.

In two distinct occurrences in Harris County, Texas, trees fell on the residences of a 74-year-old woman and a 53-year-old man, according to authorities.

Russell Richardson, a 54-year-old information security worker, “was caught in rising flood waters and tragically lost his life,” according to a Houston police statement on Monday.

The carbon monoxide from portable generators was identified as the cause of two more deaths in Harris County, which is primarily located beneath the city of Houston. Authorities persisted in cautioning locals against using portable generators that run on fuel indoors, not even in garages.

Three deaths have been confirmed by Montgomery County Emergency Management: the guy in his 40s who was struck by a tree while operating a tractor, and the two whose bodies were discovered in a tent in Magnolia woods.

State Senator Mayes Middleton, a Republican from Galveston, stated during a press conference on Tuesday that a person in the county who was dependent on medical oxygen passed away as a result of a generator failing, power outages, and dead batteries in a portable oxygen concentrator.

Sheriff Julian Whittington reported in a Facebook message that a woman was murdered in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, northeast of Shreveport, when a tree fell on her house.

In order to support the state’s recovery efforts, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick—acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is abroad on a diplomatic visit—announced on Tuesday that he had spoken with President Joe Biden and that, as a result, he had applied for and been granted a federal emergency disaster declaration through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

As Beryl headed northeast on Tuesday morning, more than 25 million people from Arkansas to Michigan were under flood watch.

The National Weather Service stated that thunderstorms and up to five inches of rain were possible along the storm’s path.

Monday saw 110 tornado warnings, including 67 in Shreveport, the most number ever for a July day.

The lights went out while Sarah Glass and her husband were in their living room in Wharton, Texas, which is 60 miles southwest of Houston, during the hurricane. She went in search of candles and flashlights while he checked the generator. A few moments afterward, a massive tree crashed onto their house.

She told NBC News, “And as I came into the kitchen, [there was] a big crash and the ceiling had fallen in.” “We probably would have been killed when we moved out of the living room because that’s where all that spiked wood fell from the ceiling.”

PowerOutage.us, a utility tracker, said late on Tuesday that over 1.7 million Texas residents were still without power. According to a statement from the utility CenterPoint Energy, 1.4 million customers in the Houston area were without power as of Tuesday night.

By the end of Wednesday, the business estimated that it would have restored one million connections, having restored over 800,000 in the previous twenty-four hours. In several areas of Greater Houston, where over a foot of rain has fallen in the past 24 hours, crews were still confronted with high water.

Because of the storm’s somewhat different path, the impact of the fallen trees and strong winds that brought down power lines around Greater Houston was worse than anticipated, according to the business.

Eva Costancio, who lives in the Rosenberg suburb of Houston, looked at a big tree that had fallen across power wires and remarked, “We haven’t really slept.” After going several hours without power, Costancio told The Associated Press she was afraid the food in her refrigerator might go bad.

It would be tough for us to lose the food we are struggling to have, she remarked.

A heat advisory for portions of southeast Texas predicted a temperature as high as 105 degrees, so Houston opened cooling centers on Tuesday. The Houston field office of the National Weather Service issued a warning that residents could be in risk due to the widespread lack of air conditioning and power.

Videos of intense thunderstorms in St. Louis, flooding in Bryant, Arkansas, and torrential rain in Houston were shared on social media on Monday.