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Hurricane Beryl live updates: Storm makes landfall in Texas as Category 1 hurricane
Beryl is bringing dangerous storm surge to the Gulf Coast.
Hurricane Beryl strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane before making landfall along the Gulf Coast of Texas early 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.
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Wind gust of 92 mph recorded in Freeport, Texas
A wind gust of 92 mph was recorded at about 6 a.m. in Freeport, Texas, the National Weather Service said.
Maximum sustained winds at the time were about 80 mph, officials said. Category 1 storms generally have sustained wind speeds of 74 to 95 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Sustained wind speeds at Palacios Municipal, a coastal airport near where the storm made landfall, were at about 61 mph, officials said. Gusts at the airfield had climbed as high as 81 mph.
-ABC New’s Max Golembo
Almost 200,000 without power in Texas
More than 199,000 customers were without power across Texas early Monday, about an hour after Hurricane Beryl made landfall, according to PowerOutage.us.
Many of those outages were along the Gulf Coast, where the Category 1 hurricane made landfall, according to the tracking website.
About 21,000 customers were without power in Brazoria County, about 12,000 were without power in Matagorda County and about 5,000 were without power in Galveston County, the site said.
-ABC News’ Amanda M. Morris and Kevin Shalvey
Beryl makes landfall in Texas
Hurricane Beryl made landfall at about 4 a.m. on Monday near Matagorda, Texas, the National Hurricane Center said.
The hurricane brought with it a "dangerous" storm surge and strong winds, officials said. Flash flooding was expected.
-ABC News' Max Golembo
Beryl expected to move inland over Texas, Arkansas
As Beryl heads toward the Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane, the storm is forecast to make landfall in the next few hours before turning northeastward.
The storm's expected to move farther inland over eastern Texas and Arkansas late Monday and Tuesday.
If Beryl makes landfall as a Category 1 storm, it would be the first landfalling hurricane in the lower 48 states since Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Keaton Beach, Florida, on Aug. 30 2023 as a Category 3 hurricane.
-ABC News’ Richard Von Ohlen
Beryl is closing in on Texas with up to 7 feet of storm surge forecast
The combination of storm surge and tide will cause normally dry areas near the Texas coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Officials are forecasting up to 7 feet of storm surge, above normal tide levels for Matagorda Bay and Port O’Connor to San Luis Pass.
The possible storm surge is forecast to reach up to 6 feet in Galveston Bay, officials said.
Surge-related flooding depends on the relative timing of the surge and the tidal cycle, and can vary greatly over short distances, according to the NHC.