Beryl menaces eastern Texas with storm surge, rain

Hurricane Beryl crashed ashore early today, bringing life-threatening storm surge, strong winds and heavy rainfall to southeast Texas.

The hurricane was packing maximum sustained winds of 75mph and was about 40 miles southwest of Houston, Texas, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued at 8am ET. About 1.1 million Houston area customers are without power, US utility CenterPoint Energy said.

Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane near Matagorda, Texas, after regaining strength as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico.

Heavy rainfall of 5-10 inches is forecast across parts of the middle and upper Texas Gulf coast and eastern Texas. The NHC also warned of the risk of flash and urban flooding.

A hurricane warning is in effect for the Texas coast from Mesquite Bay north to Port Bolivar, while a tropical storm warning is in place for the coast north of Port Bolivar to Sabine Pass.

On its current forecast track, the center of Beryl will cross eastern Texas today, before sweeping through the lower Mississippi valley into the Ohio valley on Tuesday and 10 July, the NHC said.

Beryl is forecast to weaken as it moves inland and is expected to be downgraded to a tropical storm later today and to a tropical depression on Tuesday.

Disruptions to US Gulf of Mexico oil and gas operations appear to be limited so far, given Beryl's approach to the west of most US offshore oil and gas operations. But some platforms were evacuated late last week.

ExxonMobil said on Sunday it was making operational adjustments in advance of the storm but expected minimal impact to production. It shut in output from the Hoover platform and evacuated remaining staff.

By Stephen Cunningham