Hurricane Beryl made landfall in the southern U.S. state of Texas early Monday, bringing storm surge to coastal areas and soaking a wider section of southeastern Texas with heavy rain.
The center of the storm came ashore near Matagorda, Texas, about 130 kilometers southwest of Houston.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Beryl had regained hurricane strength shortly before landfall with maximum sustained winds of 130 kilometers per hour.
Forecasters said they expected 12-25 centimeters of rain to fall on areas of eastern Texas by late Monday.
Texas officials warned of flooding and power outages, and expressed worry that not many people were fleeing coastal areas ahead of the storm’s arrival.
Before impacting Texas, Beryl move through the Caribbean, killing three people in Venezuela, three people in Grenada, three people in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and two people in Jamaica.
Beryl also struck Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula before crossing the Gulf of Mexico and heading for Texas.
The storm set a record as the earliest to attain Category 5 strength during the Atlantic hurricane season that runs from June to November.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press.
