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Officials urge evacuations of Texas Gulf Coast as Beryl nears land

The Texas coast is bracing for Beryl, which is expected to make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane Monday. Thousands of coastal residents have been urged to evacuate.

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Families explore the rough surf along Matagorda Beach ahead of Beryl’s arrival. (Brady Dennis/The Washington Post)
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MATAGORDA, Tex. — Texas officials urged thousands of coastal residents to evacuate Sunday ahead of the expected landfall of Tropical Storm Beryl as a Category 1 hurricane early Monday morning.

After destroying houses, downing power lines and killing at least 10 in its path through the Caribbean, Beryl was hurtling toward Matagorda Bay on the Gulf Coast of Texas, between Corpus Christi and Galveston, with sustained winds of 65 mph.

At 5 p.m. Eastern time the storm was 135 miles southeast of Corpus Christi and moving northwest at 12 mph. The storm’s outer rain bands were already coming ashore along the South Texas coast with dangerous storm surge, flash flooding, strong winds and possibly tornadoes expected overnight. The storm surge — or rise in ocean water above normally dry land — had reached about 1½ feet along much of the Texas and Louisiana coastline, while waves grew.

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