Beryl Leaves Millions Without Power in Houston: What to Know
The New York Times
The storm hit Texas on Monday as a Category 1 hurricane. As the storm moved out of the state, officials warned it could take days to fully restore electricity.
A day after Tropical Storm Beryl struck Houston with deadly force, flooding roads and highways and killing at least four people, officials in Texas were struggling to restore power for millions of residents as hot weather returned to the region.
The storm, which made landfall in Texas as a Category 1 hurricane around 4 a.m. on Monday, weakened as it passed through the sprawling city and its suburbs. But the force of its winds still left Houston residents reeling for the second time in two months after a deadly system of thunderstorms crashed through the city in May.
The storm had sustained winds of 65 m.p.h. as it passed through Houston but also produced damaging, hurricane-force wind gusts above 80 m.p.h. in and around the city. That was enough to rip branches and topple trees across the city.
Two of the confirmed deaths from the storm on Monday involved trees that had fallen into homes, crushing people inside.
In one case, a tree fell on a house in the Atascocita area northeast of the city, killing a man who was inside with his family. He was 53 years old, the Harris County sheriff said on social media. Another person was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the local fire department.
