Beryl impacts Texas: Dangerous storm surge, floods

Beryl arrived on the Central Texas coast early this morning, with hurricane-force winds, storm surge and increasing flood threats inland this morning.

Beryl became a hurricane at 11 p.m. CT Sunday, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph and made landfall at 4 a.m. CT near Matagorda, Texas. As it moves inland, the wind speed will gradually drop but the rain threat will continue on Monday and through the middle of the week as it heads toward the Great Lakes and then the Northeast. Power outages are already exceeding 100,000 customers.

As the storm moves inland, it will sweep heavy rain into eastern and central Texas. Some places can expect to get around 12 inches of rain during the next 12 to 20 hours. Flash flooding is likely.

This system will continue to zip right over Eastern Texas bringing in periods of heavy rains on Monday. By Monday night, the system should be approaching Arkansas. Please monitor river levels, minor to isolated river flooding is expected. Storm surge has also started to increase along the northern Texas coast. High tides for The San  Luis Pass, Galveston Bay Channel southward before Corpus Christi starts between 8 and 9 a.m. local time.

This is the time when residents can expect the highest surge to occur, especially along the northern coast as the storm's rotation will still be pulling water onshore with the winds. Keep in mind that considering the direction of the winds, storm surge will continue to be significant even through the evening on Monday, especially along the southeast Texas coast.