HOUSTON (AP) — Texas officials urged coastal residents to brace for a looming hit by Beryl, which was a tropical storm on Saturday but was expected to regain hurricane strength as it moves across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
A hurricane warning was declared for a stretch of the state’s coast from Baffin Bay, south of Corpus Christi, to Sargent, south of Houston, and forecasters said the storm’s center was likely to approach the state Sunday and then make landfall the following day. Storm surge warnings were also in effect.
“We’re expecting the storm to make landfall somewhere on the Texas coast sometime Monday, if the current forecast is correct,” said Jack Beven, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “Should that happen, it’ll most likely be a Category 1 hurricane.”
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 islands earlier in the week. It then battered Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane, toppling trees but causing no injuries or deaths before weakening to a tropical storm as it moved across the Yucatan Peninsula.
Texas officials warned people along the entire coastline to prepare for possible flooding, heavy rain and wind as the storm nears.
