Beryl barrels toward US with Texas residents urged to evacuate: Live updates

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.

Beryl, now a tropical storm after hitting Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, was made 10-30 percent more intense due to human-induced climate change, according to a rapid analysis study by Climameter.

Beryl’s higher intensity was also driven by natural weather patterns in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, according to the Climameter study.

Beryl made history the earliest recorded Category 5 hurricane this week.

“It’s really scary stuff,” Steve Maximay, a climate and agriculture expert in Grenada, previously told The Independent.

”When you talk about Category 4 and 5, there are very few systems or protocols that can prepare you for that,” Maximay continued. “You can have resilient buildings but category five winds can move concrete structures.”

Hurricane Beryl’s growth into a Category 5 storm can be partly attributed to record-warm ocean temperatures. High water temperatures can contribute to sea level rise and hurt marine life in addition to fueling strong storms like Hurricane Beryl. Ocean temperatures will likely continue to rise even if we curb greenhouse gas emissions, according to NOAA.

Island nations are at the front lines of the climate crisis, given their vulnerability to violent storms and sea-level rise.

The Alliance of Small Island States, an organization designed to create a unified voice for small island nations to address the ongoing climate crisis, denounced the climate crisis and its impact on island nations.

Beryl is expected to hit Corpus Christi, Texas and the surrounding region on Sunday night as a Category 1 hurricane, AccuWeather meteorologist Bernie Rayno said.

“We expect Beryl to slow down as it approaches the Texas coast, and that could cause some big flooding problems,” Rayno added.

Some areas could see up to two feet of rain and 95mph winds. The storm will also create dangerous riptides in the Gulf of Mexico this weekend.

“As Texans and visitors in south coastal areas celebrate Independence Day, I urge them to also make an emergency plan to stay safe,” Texas governor Greg Abbott said on X.

The governor has also directed the state’s Division of Emergency Management to increase their readiness level on Friday morning.

“Texas is prepared to quickly deploy all available emergency response resources to assist at-risk communities,” Abbott said.

Hurricane Beryl has killed at least 11 people in the eastern Caribbean, the Associated Press reported Friday morning.

At least two of those killed — the first in St George’s, Grenada and the second in Hanover, Jamaica — died after hurricane-force winds knocked trees onto their homes. Hurricane Beryl caused widespread destruction in Jamaica, Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines this week.

There have been no reports of injuries or deaths from Hurricane Beryl in Mexico, according to Laura Velázquez Alzúa, coordinator of civil protection.

Authorities are already out on the streets assessing the damage the strong winds have caused, particularly in the popular holiday destination of Tulum.