At least eight people have died after Hurricane Beryl slammed into southeastern Texas and Louisiana, knocking out power to nearly three million people, the BBC reported.
On July 8, Beryl struck the southern United States as a Category 1 hurricane, but has since been downgraded to a tropical depression.
Officials warned of damaging winds, rain up to 38cm thick and "life-threatening" storm surges.
According to flightaware.com, more than 1,100 flights were canceled at Houston's main airport on July 8.
About 2.3 million customers in Texas were without power as of Tuesday morning (July 9), poweroutage.us reported, with some outages also reported in Louisiana and Arkansas.
CenterPoint Energy, a Texas-based utility provider, said it plans to restore power to at least one million customers within 1 day.
The storm caused widespread destruction and at least 10 deaths in the Caribbean.
In the US, officials said seven people died in Harris and Montgomery counties in Texas, and another death was confirmed in neighboring Louisiana.
A 53-year-old man died after winds knocked down power lines and toppled a tree onto his Harris County home, causing his roof to collapse.
There again, 73-year-old grandmother Maria Loredo was pronounced dead after a tree fell through the roof of her home, reports CBS affiliate KHOU.
Loredo's family said she was at home with her son, his wife and two grandsons, ages two and seven, when the tree fell. No other family members were injured.
Also in Harris County, a 54-year-old Houston Police Department officer drowned after trying to wade through high water on his way to work.
Another person has died in a house fire believed to have been caused by lightning, Houston's mayor said.
Three people also died in Montgomery County. Authorities say a man died when a tree fell on him while he was driving a tractor. Two others — homeless people — died when a tree fell on their tent, KHOU reported.
Houston is a low-lying coastal city, making it prone to flooding.
During the storm, sustained wind speeds in the Houston area reached 120 km/h.
Beryl is expected to continue to lose strength as it gradually moves to the north-northeast. However, the risk of flash flooding and heavy rain remains, according to the National Hurricane Center.
In Louisiana, where more than 20,000 people were without power due to the storm on July 9, one person was killed when a tree fell on his home in the town of Benton, according to the local sheriff.
The National Weather Service (NWS) reported that Beryl spawned a tornado in Louisiana on July 8. The next day, the risk of hurricanes moved into Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, forecasters said. Ports in Corpus Christi, Houston, Galveston, Freeport and Texas City were closed.
More than 2,500 people, including members of the Texas National Guard, are prepared to deal with the aftermath of Beryl.
Beryl was expected to move eastward across the central US states, including Mississippi, later in the week.
It was forecast to miss central and west Texas, areas currently experiencing moderate to severe drought. | BGNES
