Hurricane Beryl makes landfall in Texas; 1,300+ flights cancelled

Hurricane Beryl has roared its way to the Texas coast, causing infrastructure damage, power outages and widespread flooding, according to reports.

The storm that caused death and widespread damage in the Caribbean and Mexico’s Yucatan last week, at various levels of severity, hit Houston early Monday (July 8) as a Category 1 hurricane.

The storm's centre hit land at around 4 a.m. local time about 135 kilometres south-southwest of Houston, with top sustained winds of 128 km/h while moving north at a speed of just over 19 km/h.

READ MORE: All clear in Cayman Islands following Hurricane Beryl

Nearly one million homes and businesses statewide were without power hours after Beryl made landfall, according to CenterPoint Energy in Houston.

Beryl, which weakened over the weekend, strengthened and became a hurricane once again late Sunday, reports the Associated Press.

A hurricane warning remains in effect for the Texas coast from Mesquite Bay north to Port Bolivar, the U.S. weather service said.

1,300+ flights cancelled

Travellers looking to catch a flight out of impacted areas in Texas faced disruptions as Beryl moved closer.

A total of 1,331 flights were cancelled and 505 flights were delayed as of just after 6 a.m. ET on Monday, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.

Most of the impacted flights are those originating in or flying to Texas airports, including Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P. Hobby Airport, also in Houston.

READ MORE: Beryl - Jamaica reopens airports; “no wide-scale impact” to tourism, says Bartlett

United had the most number of cancelled flights on Monday morning, with 405 cancellations, followed by Southwest with 268, FlightAware's data shows.

Beryl will weaken, head to Mississippi Valley

Beryl is expected to be downgraded to a tropical storm on Monday and then a tropical depression on Tuesday (July 9), 

The storm's centre is set to move over eastern Texas and then through the lower Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley on Tuesday and Wednesday, the U.S. weather service said.

The earliest storm to whirl into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean last week. 

The storm lashed at Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 2 storm on Friday. 

Prior to that, it brought flooding and damage to Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada.

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