Texas issues disaster declaration for 40 counties ahead of Beryl landfall: live

Hurricane season is upon us, known for disastrous flooding and high-speed winds in coastal areas of the United States and in the Caribbean and Central America, and emergency management officials are urging people to stay prepared.

Unlike previous hurricane seasons, this summer brings record hot temperatures nationwide and an early onset of storms. Hurricane season runs June 1 to Nov. 30, but usually the most hurricanes occur in September and October, said Jaime Hernandez, the emergency management director for Hollywood, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick — who is acting governor while Governor Greg Abbott is out of country traveling — has issued a disaster declaration for 40 counties ahead of Beryl’s landfall as an expected Category 1 hurricane.

The declaration allows state resources to be used in preperatory work and recovery efforts.

Abbott advised Texans living in the storm’s path to begin preparing now for the storm’s arrival.

Hurricane Beryl strengthened back into a Category 3 storm with winds of 115 mph on Thursday, July 4, and made landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula overnight.

Beryl is now heading toward Texas after making landfall at the popular Mexico tourist destination Tulum on Friday morning with 85mph winds and dangerous storm surge.

The National Weather Service announced storm surge and hurricane wanrings for Texas’ east coast on Friday night.

Those warnings extend from the mouth of the Rio Grande to San Luis Pass further north.

Coastal Harris County is also under the warning.

The hurricane watch is in effect for Mexico’s northeastern coast between Barra el Mezquital to the mouth of the Rio Grande.

Officials in Matagorda County emergency management called for a voluntary evacuation on Friday night for residents living and visiting the state’s coast ahead of Beryl’s arrival on Sunday.

The voluntary evaucation includes residents in Sargent, Matagorda, and Palacios counties.

A voluntary evacuation is essentially a strong recommendation for residents to and visitors to seek shelter elsewhere until it is safe to return.

When Storm Beryl arrives in Texas as a Category 1 hurricane, it is expected to bring 5-10 inches of rainfall, with some locations seeing as high as 15 inches.

The rain will most affect the eastern coast of Texas beginning later on Sunday and stretching into the middle of next week, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Along with the rain high winds, the storm will also bring a 2-5 foot storm surge to the coast.

World Central Kitchen, a disaster relief non-profit, has sent a support team to Grenada’s Carriacou Island in the wake of Beryl.

The storm “flattened” the island in half an hour on Monday, officials said, after it swept through the region as a Category 5 hurricane.

As Hurricane Beryl approached Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula this week, officials scrambled to evacuate an especially vulnerable group – sea turtle eggs.

Mexican officials moved to save the eggs on Wednesday ahead of the storm, which made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane near Tulum early Friday.

Officials relocated the eggs using sand-filled coolers and helped insulate their nests along the beach, the Associated Press reported. Storm surge and rises in sea level — conditions which Beryl and other storms cause — pose significant threats to sea turtle eggs, because they can’t hatch if they’re swept out to sea.