Tropical Storm Beryl is steaming toward Texas, with the deadly storm expected to again become a hurricane before it makes landfall near state’s southeastern coastline early Monday.
The storm, killed 11 as it tore through the Caribbean last week, after growing the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record. It weakened to a tropical storm as it passed over Mexico’s Yucatan Pennisula on Friday. But Beryl is forecast to strengthen again as it moves over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico toward Matagorda Bay, just north of Corpus Christi, Texas.
Meteorologists predict it will be at least a Category 1 storm, with wind speeds of 75 mph to 95 mph, but it could ramp up as high as a Category 3, with wind speeds of 111 mph to 129 mph, which would make it the strongest storm since the devastating Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
The Texas Gulf Coast saw heavy rain and coastal flooding last month with Tropical Storm Alberto, the first named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.
Beryl is forecast to bring intense rainfall, damaging winds, life-threatening storm surge and even possible tornadoes to the Lone Star region, according to the National Hurricane Center.
“Right now, the storm is trying to get better organized,” AccuWeather lead hurricane forecaster Alex DaSilva told The Post.
“It could potentially be a Category 2, or there’s even a slim chance it could get up to a 3 because the environment is going to be very favorable to it,” DaSilva said.
The storm is expected to develop quickly and rapidly evolve, DaSilva said, who urged residents of the area to be vigilant.
“The thing that people die from the most in hurricanes is water, whether that be surges or rainfall,” he added.
“It’s not really the wind. So we want people to be very careful … even if you live far from the coast.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 40 counties in the state on Friday and urged holiday travelers and those in at-risk communities in particular to heed warnings from officials.
Corpus Christie Mayor Paulette Guajardo issued a local declaration for the southern city.
“This declaration will expedite the deployment of vital resources,” Guajardo wrote on social media.
“Please continue to prepare and do what we in Corpus Christi and the region do best, we help one another.”
Six- to 12 inches of rain could fall quickly on the area where Beryl makes landfall and even Houston could see 4- to 8 inches.
Hurricane watches and tropical storm warnings are in place, with about 500,000 people under a tropical alert, but that will increase as the storm intensifies and moves north.
Tropical storms bring with them the threat of tornados, Fox Weather meteorologist Cody Brad noted. Twisters could hit the Houston and Galveston areas in particular on Sunday and Monday.
By Tuesday, Beryl will move north past Dallas and toward Arkansas, where it will fizzle out and bring rain late in the week to a wide swath of the country, with up to 13 states in its path as it weakens.
