HOUSTON — Texas officials Saturday were urging coastal residents to brace for a potential hit by Beryl as the storm is expected to regain hurricane Category 1 strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Beryl is expected to make landfall in Texas early Monday near Matagorda Bay, but tropical force winds could arrive Sunday.
A hurricane warning was issued for the area between Baffin Bay in South Texas and Sargent and also for Matagorda and Jackson counties, according to The National Weather Service in the Houston/Galveston area. A tropical storm warning was issued for Colorado, Brazoria, Galveston, Wharton, coastal Harris and southern Liberty counties, it said on its website.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is traveling in Taiwan, issued a pre-emptive disaster declaration for 40 counties. Later Saturday, 81 more counties were added to the Texas disaster declaration.
Visitors to Nueces County, home to Corpus Christi, were ordered to evacuate by noon Sunday, according to a news released posted to social media by the county judge. All county residents were encouraged to leave as well.
Galveston County issued a disaster declaration on Saturday. The declaration said access to the Galveston-Bolivar Ferry and Highway 87 could be interrupted from Sunday evening through Monday.
Aransas County recommended visitors, people with special needs, and residents in low-lying or flood-prone areas evacuate. The voluntary evacuation order also suggested “owners of high-profile vehicles such as RVs, boats, and large vehicles, which are particularly vulnerable to high winds” leave as well by Saturday evening. Sheltering in place was discouraged.
“We’re expecting the storm to make landfall somewhere on the Texas coast sometime Monday, if the current forecast is correct,” said Jack Beven, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “Should that happen, it’ll most likely be a category one hurricane.”
The earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean islands earlier in the week. It then battered Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane, toppling trees but causing no injuries or deaths before weakening to a tropical storm as it moved across the Yucatan Peninsula.
Beryl will bring to the Texas coast a dangerous storm surge — flooding portions of the Texas coast — along with high winds and heavy rains in areas, Beven said.
“There is an increasing risk of damaging hurricane-force winds and life-threatening storm surge along portions of the lower and middle Texas coast late Sunday into Monday,” the center said in an advisory, also warning that flash and urban flooding is likely in the eastern part of the state through the middle of next week.
Texas officials warned the state’s entire coastline to brace for possible flooding, heavy rain and wind as they wait for a more defined path of the storm. The hurricane center has issued hurricane and storm surge watches for the Texas coast from the mouth of the Rio Grande north to San Luis Pass, less than 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Houston.
Some Texas coastal cities called for voluntary evacuations in low-lying areas prone to flooding, banned beach camping and urged tourists traveling on the July 4 holiday weekend to move recreational vehicles from coastal parks.
Mitch Thames, a spokesman for Matagorda County, said Saturday that officials issued a voluntary evacuation request for the coastal areas of the county about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Houston to inform the large number of visitors in the area for the holiday weekend.
“I certainly don’t want to ruin the holiday weekend for our visitors. But at the same time, our No. 1 goal is the health and safety of all our visitors and of course our residents. I’m not so much worried about our residents. Those folks that live down there, they’re used to this, they get it,” Thames said.
In Corpus Christi, officials asked residents to secure their homes by boarding up windows if necessary and using sandbags to guard against possible flooding.
Traffic has been nonstop for the past three days at an Ace Hardware in Corpus Christi as customers buy up tarps, rope, duct tape, sandbags and generators, employee Elizabeth Landry said Saturday.
“They’re just worried about the wind, the rain,” she said. “They’re wanting to prepare just in case.”
Ben Koutsoumbaris, general manager of Island Market on Corpus Christi’s Padre Island, said there’s “definitely a lot of buzz about the incoming storm,” with customers stocking up on food and drinks — particularly meat and beer.
“I heard there’s been some talk about people having like hurricane parties,” he said by telephone Saturday.
In Refugio County, north of Corpus Christi along Texas’ Gulf Coast, officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for its 6,700 residents Saturday.
Refugio County Judge Jhiela “Gigi” Poynter, the county’s top elected official, said that based on the growing confidence of Beryl’s track and the uncertainty regarding the storm’s intensity and holiday weekend traffic that is already backing up roads, she made the decision to call for the mandatory evacuation.
“I would rather be cautious and let Tropical Storm Beryl come crawling in with a little bit of rain and a little bit of wind to an empty Refugio County than the alternative if it were to strengthen more than the predictions, which we know has happened with several storms in the past,” Poynter said in a video posted on Facebook.
On Saturday, Beryl was about 385 miles (615 kilometers) southeast of Corpus Christi and had top sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center. It was moving west-northwest at 13 mph (20 kph).
Before hitting Mexico and moving into the Gulf, Beryl already spread destruction in Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Barbados this week. Three people have been reported dead in Grenada, three in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, three in Venezuela and two in Jamaica, officials said.
Mexican authorities had moved some tourists and residents out of low-lying areas around the Yucatan Peninsula before landfall, but tens of thousands remained to tough out the strong winds and storm surge. Much of the area around Tulum is just a few yards (meters) above sea level.
By MARTÍN SILVA and JIM VERTUNO, The Associated Press
Silva reported from Tulum, Mexico, and Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writers Juan Lozano in Houston; John Myers Jr. and Renloy Trail in Kingston, Jamaica; Mark Stevenson and Megan Janetsky in Mexico City; Coral Murphy Marcos in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Lucanus Ollivierre on Union Island, St. Vincent and Grenadines also contributed to this report. Dallas Morning News breaking news editor Carol Taylor contributed to this report.
