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Tropical Storm Beryl live updates: 2 killed by fallen trees in Houston area
Beryl is slamming Texas with powerful winds and torrential rain.
Beryl has weakened to a tropical storm after making landfall as a Category 1 hurricane along Texas' Gulf Coast Monday morning.
The earliest Category 5 Atlantic hurricane in history, the storm killed at least seven people in the Windward Islands before skirting south of Jamaica, shutting down communications, stranding tourists and delivering storm surge and flooding rain to the island.
Latest headlines:
2.3 million without power in Texas
Power has been knocked out to more than 2.3 million customers in Texas as Hurricane Beryl slams the state with powerful winds and torrential rain.
ABC Houston station KTRK briefly lost power in its newsroom Monday morning.
2 killed by fallen trees in Houston area
A 53-year-old man was killed by a fallen tree while riding out Hurricane Beryl with his family, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
The man, his wife and children were in a house in Atascocita in the Houston area when an oak tree fell on the roof, hitting the rafters, the sheriff said. The structure then fell on the man, killing him.
His wife and children were not hurt, the sheriff said Monday morning.
Hours later, the sheriff said a 74-year-old woman was killed when a tree fell on a home in Houston.
Biden receiving updates, FEMA prepared to respond
President Joe Biden is receiving regular updates on Beryl as the storm rips across Texas, according to a White House official.
Senior White House officials are in close contact with their state and local counterparts and employees from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are standing by to offer support, the official said.
"The U.S. Coast Guard and FEMA have prepositioned response personnel including search and rescue teams, and FEMA has staged bottled water, meals, tarps and electric generators in case they are needed," the official said.
Up to 7 inches of rain pounds Houston, Galveston
Up to 7 inches of rain has pounded the Houston and Galveston areas so far and another 2 to 4 inches of rain is in the forecast for the next few hours.
The storm surge has topped 6 feet.
Wind gusts have reached a whopping 94 mph in Freeport, Texas; 82 mph in Galveston Bay, Texas; and 84 mph at Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport.
Flood warnings and tornado warnings are in effect in the Houston area through Monday afternoon.
Tornadoes have also been reported.
-ABC News’ Max Golembo
