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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.
Latest headlines:
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
Winds increase to 80 mph
Hurricane Beryl’s top sustained winds increased to 80 mph, as the storm moved toward the Texas coast.
The Category 1 hurricane was about 30 miles south-southwest of Matagorda at about 1 a.m. local time. It was about 95 miles from Corpus Christi.
The storm was moving north-northwest at about 10 mph, with a turn toward the north expected this morning.
Beryl’s center is expected during the next several hours to make landfall on the middle Texas coast.
-ABC News’ Richard Von Ohlen
Officials urge Texans on the coast to evacuate
In a press conference Sunday, Texas Lt. Gov Dan Patrick urged people living on the state’s coast to evacuate before the storm hits.
"We don't see many people leaving," Patrick said. "You don't want to be on the road tomorrow."
Texas Division of Emergency Management officials said over 50 ambulances are on standby to assist with evacuating hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities, if needed.
"This storm has already left nine deaths in its path through the Caribbean. We don't want number 10 to be in Texas," Patrick said.