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Beryl makes landfall in Texas as a Category 1 hurricane

Heavy rain falls southeast of Austin along a toll road.
Patricia Lim
/
KUT News
Heavy rain chances for the Austin area have lowered as Beryl's forecast track shifts east.

This post was last updated at 8 a.m. Monday. Scroll to the bottom for the latest updates from the National Weather Service.

Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane overnight in the area of East Matagorda Bay. The storm's track has shifted east toward Houston and away from Austin and San Antonio.

A Category 1 hurricane means the storm has sustained wind speeds of 74-95 mph. Tropical storm-level winds were expected to arrive to coastal areas as early as Sunday afternoon, the Weather Service said, with hurricane-force winds arriving Sunday night.

Austin is no longer in the storm's cone — the path that weather forecasters believe Beryl will probably take — and rainfall chances along the Interstate 35 corridor have lowered to 0.5-1 inch of rain, the National Weather Service said Sunday afternoon. Counties to the east of Austin are expected to get higher rainfall totals of 2-4 inches.

Even though a Category 1 hurricane is expected, the NWS says people in the path should prepare as if a Category 2 hurricane will hit, due to levels of uncertainty in the forecast.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick added 81 counties to the state's disaster declaration in preparation for the storm, including Travis, Williamson, Bastrop and Hays counties.

Patrick is serving as acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is in East Asia on an economic development trip. Speaking at a news conference on Sunday afternoon, Patrick explained why he placed a total of 120 counties under a disaster declaration.

"This will be a heavy rain event but the storm will move quickly, at least as the forecast is right now and that is subject to change, but it will go up through the state," he said.

Patrick said he is worried people vacationing along the Texas coast may not be paying attention to updates about Beryl, especially because it is a holiday weekend.

"Many of you ... have friends and family who live on the coast or who are visiting the coast. Call them, text them, email them," he said.

Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd, who joined Patrick for the news conference, added that some areas in the storm's path will have power outages.

"Let that be known. There is going to be some place in Texas that, with these tropical and hurricane force winds, we are going to have power outages," he said.

Kidd added that people should make sure their phones are charged and they have fuel in their cars. He also instructed anyone driving to turn around if they encounter any water on the roads.

"There will be inland flooding and what we find is this freshwater, inland flooding tends to be more of a killer of our citizens than the actual storm surge, so please, please do not drive through water," he said.

More information about Beryl from state officials can be found on the Texas Division of Emergency Management's website.

Follow the latest updates from the National Weather Service below. Refresh your screen if the updates do not appear.

Andy Jechow is the audience engagement editor for KUT News. Got a tip? Email him at andy@kut.org. Follow him on Twitter at @AndyJechow.
Becky Fogel is the education reporter at KUT. Got a tip? Email her at rfogel@kut.org. Follow her on Twitter @beckyfogel.
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