KHOU 11 COVERAGE | Latest updates: Hurricane Beryl blamed for at least 7 deaths, extensive damage, massive power outages

HOUSTON — Beryl made landfall near Matagorda, Texas at 3:55 a.m. Monday as a Category 1 hurricane. By the time it passed hours later, at least seven people in Harris and Montgomery counties were dead. Other storm victims have extensive damage at their homes and some 2.5 million customers lost power.  

Houston Mayor John Whitmire said a first responder was killed while trying to get to work during Hurricane Beryl. The civilian employee for HPD exited I-45 but ran into high water at the Houston Avenue underpass. The man called HPD friends for help but when they got to him, it was too late. They spent the afternoon recovering his body from his car. The mayor asked for prayers for his family. 

Two people in Harris County, a man in Humble and a woman in Spring, were also killed by falling trees and a woman in SE Houston died in a fire. 

At 4 p.m., more than 1.8 million CenterPoint customers were still without power. There were 2.26 million at the storm’s peak. 

CenterPoint said the initial focus in the storm’s aftermath will be assessing the type of damage to the electric system and rerouting power on unaffected power lines. Concurrent with the damage assessment, crews have already begun a cut-and-clear process, which allows crews to identify and isolate areas of damage to more quickly restore customers along sections that are not impacted.

MORE DETAILS: Update from CenterPoint on efforts to restore power to nearly two million customers in Houston area

Two people in Harris County, a man in Humble and a woman in Spring, were also killed by falling trees.

Montgomery County Judge Mark Kough said there have been at least three storm-related deaths in the county. 

In New Caney, a man in his 40s was on a tractor late Monday morning when a tree fell on him and crushed him. 

Two people who appear to be homeless were found dead after a tree fell on their tent in Montgomery. 

Local Planet Fitness clubs in Houston will be opening a few of their locations today, July 8, from 5-10 p.m. for members and nonmembers to use their bathroom and shower facilities amid tropical storm Beryl. Please see below for open locations.

• Planet Fitness Baytown – 6515 Garth Rd, Baytown, TX 77521
• Planet Fitness Fondren – 11187 Fondren Rd, Houston, TX 77096
• Planet Fitness Steeplechase – 9425 Jones Rd., Houston, TX 77065
• Planet Fitness Tomball – 27830 Tomball Pkwy, Tomball, TX 77375
• Planet Fitness Webster – 560 El Dorado Blvd, Webster, TX 77598

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said shelters won’t open until roads are safe. Until then, people are advised to shelter-in-place if possible. 

DoorDash has activated its Severe Weather Protocol and suspended operations across Houston until at least 9 a.m. Tuesday, July 9. This precautionary measure comes as Hurricane Beryl delivers potentially dangerous conditions throughout the city, including street flooding and strong winds.

“This is a potentially dangerous situation so we’re activating our Severe Weather Protocol to help keep our community in Houston safe,” said DoorDash spokesperson Julian Crowley.

After Hurricane Beryl hammered the Greater Houston Area as a Category 1 storm, some school districts are shutting down again on Tuesday, July 9. We have the latest list here and will continue to update as needed. 

AT&T sent the following update at 3:15 p.m. 

Currently, all of our major network facilities remain online, with some running on backup power. Some of our customers in affected areas may be experiencing service interruptions due to storm damage and commercial power outages. 

As the storm clears the area, our teams will begin to safely restore service.

Several flights have been canceled or delayed. Check with your airline before you head to Bush or Hobby. 

Will Clayton Parkway is impassable due to downed trees and debris, according to Bush Airport. Use JFK Blvd. as an alternative. Traffic lights may be out so use caution.

Mayor John Whitmire and other city leaders held a news conference Monday at 11:30 a.m. Here are some of the highlights:

Mayor John Whimire

• More than 2.2M customers without power, according to CenterPoint outage tracker
• Houston Mayor John Whitmire urges Houston-area residents to shelter in place. “We are in an emergency. We’re in rescue mode,” Whitmire said. I plead with you to shelter in place. Please don’t put our first responders at risk.”
• Airports are “not operating right now,” Whitmire said.
• National Hurricane Center says weather conditions should improve in about an hour. That was as of 11:15 a.m.
• Most city multi-service centers and the Geroge R. Brown Convention Center lacked power.
• Most Bayous are out of their banks
• Most traffic lights throughout the city are out
• BARC is without power and its generator failed 
• White House has reached out to offer help to the Greater Houston area

Houston Fire Department Chief Samuel Pena

• Focus is life safety, then recovery and the consequence management
• 1 fire death in southeast Houston
• Do not drive over flooded roads
• Use 311 and 211 for non-emergency calls. Reserve 911 for emergencies only

Houston Police Department Chief Thomas Hardin

• HPD made 15 high-water rescue calls with 8 people rescued
• 400+ water rescues area-wide

Houston Public Works Chief Operating Officer Randy Macchi

• “As far as our streets are concerned, it is important to remember that our primary drainage mechanism throughout this city is our streets,” Macchi said. For better or worse, that is the reality of the situation.”
• Houston streets filling up with water is by design so it can be conveyed out to appropriate outfalls and drainage channels that are necessary
• In an event like this street will drain slower than usual
• Stay home as long as you can to allow water to clear from the streets
• Other hazards, like debris, will likely be found when the streets drain
• Use 311 to report flashing lights and power outages at intersections
• Be aware of live wires that may have fallen

 Watch the entire press conference here:

As of the noon update from the National Hurricane Center, Beryl remains a tropical storm. Its major threats remain life-threatening storm surge, damaging wind gusts and flash flooding across parts of eastern Texas. The storm is about 45 miles north-northwest of Houston with sustained winds of 65 mph. Beryl is traveling at a speed of 13 mph. 

A dramatic rescue happened just after 10 a.m. A man was stranded on top of his flooded truck on the south side.

This happened as Hurricane Beryl brought heavy rains and flooding along Highway 288. This was near Holly Hall.

The City of Texas City posted to X Monday morning that it is aware of controlled flaring happening because of a temporary loss of power at one of the local refineries. 

“We are awaiting updated information and will update you as soon as it becomes available,” the city said.

The city said there is no threat to the public. 

The city also shared on X a statement from Marathon:

“The refinery is currently flaring due to a brief power disruption during today’s storm. Flares are safety devices that allow for the safe combustion of excess gases under certain operational conditions.”

The National Weather Service issued a Hurricane Warning for San Luis Pass to Bolivar, Matagorda County and a Tropical Storm Warning for Harris, S. Liberty, Galveston, Brazoria, Colorado, Chambers and Wharton counties until further notice.  A Storm Surge Warning is in effect for the Texas coastline.

Flash Flood, Hurricane and Tornado warnings were issued Monday morning as Beryl made landfall near Matagorda. Track the latest watches and warnings for your area here.

The State of Texas has issued a disaster declaration for 121 Texas counties before Beryl made landfall. Many of those counties are in Southeast Texas, including Harris, Ft. Bend, Brazoria, Galveston, Montgomery and more. See full list of counties and how the state is getting ready for Beryl. 

If you or anyone you know in Texas needs assistance during an emergency event, you can register in advance with the State of Texas Emergency Assistance Registry or STEAR program. The STEAR program is a free registry that provides local emergency planners and emergency responders with additional information on the needs in their community. Registering yourself in the STEAR registry DOES NOT guarantee that you will receive a specific service during an emergency. 

Who Should Register?

• People with disabilities
• Medically fragile people
• People with access and functional needs such as limited mobility or communication barriers 
• People who require additional medical assistance during an emergency event
• People who require transportation assistance
• People who require personal care assistance

Register online or by calling 211.

Greater Harris County 9-1-1 Emergency Network reminds residents before, during and after a storm to ONLY contact 9-1-1 for in-progress life-threatening emergencies for police, fire or medical assistance.

It’s important not to overload the emergency call centers with non-emergency calls, especially during a storm. Non-emergency calls can delay residents with real life-threatening emergencies getting the response they need. Heavy call congestion on wireless, wireline phone networks and 9-1-1 centers could cause delay and/or prevent calls from being delivered.

Surfside Beach Police Department posted to its Facebook page that the island will be closed to all traffic until “the island is safe to return by the chief of police and the mayor”

As of around 7 a.m., I-10 at Taylor Road was impaasable. Other high-water spots can be found here.

Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashtown announced that the waterpark will not be open on Sunday, July 7, and Monday, July 8, due to the storm.

The Houston Zoo said has decided to close the zoo at noon on Sunday, July 7 through Monday, July 8. All ticket holders may reschedule their Zoo visit by emailing group.reservations@houstonzoo.org.

As of 2 a.m. Monday, Galveston ferry suspended operations until further notice.

Island Transit rail service is suspended and the rubber wheel trolleys on Seawall ended at 3 p.m. Sunday to give time to secure vehicles and allow employees to prep their homes for the storm. 

Some flights out of Houston were canceled for Monday. 

“As we go through the morning and, we see what the storm is going to do, then we’ll make that determination as to what time we’re pulling back all of those flights and start flying again,” Houston Airports COO Kelly Woodward said.

If you are traveling or picking someone up from Bush or Hobby, check the airline or Flight Aware for updates. 

United Airlines flights will operate out of Terminal C at Bush IAH until further notice. Terminal B is temporarily closed to streamline operations during Beryl. TSA checkpoints will be open at Terminals A and C.

The TSA checkpoint at Terminal D will open at a reduced capacity as we run irregular operations.

Several Houston outpatient medical facilities and other locations cut back on operations and services Monday. See the full list here.

All area hospitals will remain open for emergencies.

Harris Health closed all of its outpatient and clinic facilities on Monday for the safety of patients and staff. Patients with appointments are being notified of the closures and rescheduling options.

Harris Health hospitals—Ben Taub and Lyndon B. Johnson—will remain open and maintain emergency medical services throughout the storm. The hospitals are not equipped to be shelters for people who are not admitted as patients. Any persons seeking shelter at a hospital will be redirected or transported to a local shelter operation, as available.

Legacy Community Health clinics closed on Monday due to Beryl .

All Telehealth appointments will continue on Monday as planned.

Patients with appointments scheduled when the clinics are closed will be contacted proactively by clinic staff to reschedule their appointments.

All H-E-B, Joe V’s, Mi Tienda and Central Market stores across the Greater Houston area will delay opening Monday until noon. This includes all H-E-B fuel stations and pharmacies at those stores. 

H-E-B announced it plans to close the following stores at 10 p.m. on Sunday.

• Bay City H-E-B
• Edna H-E-B
• El Campo H-E-B
• Lake Jackson H-E-B
• Port Lavaca H-E-B
• Wharton H-E-B

As the storm passes, H-E-B said they will assess each store’s condition before reopening to the public.

Curbside and home delivery may have limited availability in certain areas.

RELATED: H-E-B limits purchases on some essentials; closing some stores Sunday night in advance of Beryl

H-E-B also announced short-term limits on the following essentials.

• water multipack – limit 2
• water gallon – limit 2
• bread products – limit 2
• tortilla products – limit 2
• ice – limit 4

H-E-B has confirmed that there is NOT a limit on brisket, despite the claim making the rounds on social media. This post on has nearly 800,000 views. It appears to be a screen shot of an old news report. H-E-B did limit briskets in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID pandemic.

 The City of Houston Solid Waste Management Department announced service interruptions for Monday, July 8, due to Beryl’s expected high winds and heavy rain. All services will be suspended, including storm debris operations, garbage, recycling, yard and tree waste collections. See the updated schedule here.

There are curfews in place for both Palacios and Bay City, according to their Facebook pages. The Palacios curfew is for 9 p.m.  The Bay City curfew begins at 11 p.m.

The City of Houston Municipal Courts Department will be closed on Monday, July 8. All normal court operations will resume on Tuesday, July 9. Case resets will take place in person at all City of Houston court locations beginning Tuesday, July 9, through Friday, July 12, until 5 p.m.

The courthouse facilities will be closed to the public. District Courts (excluding the 165th and 270th which will hold virtual dockets) and county courts will not have dockets. Jury service at the Harris County Jury Assembly, 1201 Congress Street, is canceled on Monday, July 8. Those summoned to appear on Monday, July 8, do not need to appear or reschedule. Empaneled jurors for a specific court should contact their court directly with any questions or concerns.

All cases set for Monday will be rescheduled. This includes:

• Criminal misdemeanor cases set on the dockets for each of the 16 Harris County Criminal Courts at Law, as well as the docket run by Harris County Criminal Courts at Law Associate Judge David Singer.
• Civil cases set on dockets for each of the four Harris County Civil Courts at Law, as well as the docket run by Harris County Civil Courts at Law Associate Judge Jermaine Thomas.

To find your new date, contact your attorney or the court in which your case is assigned or monitor the appropriate clerk’s website:

The courts expect to resume normal operations on Tuesday, July 9, 2024. Should that change, we will post updated information on social media and our website: www.ccl.hctx.net.

In anticipation of severe weather, METRO will make the following service adjustments:

Monday, July 8

• Local bus, METRORapid, METRORail, and METROLift services will be suspended until 8 a.m.
• All Park & Ride service will be suspended.
• METRO HOV/HOT lanes will be closed.
• RideStores will be closed.

Crews will monitor conditions through the night and early morning hours, as conditions allow, to restore service as quickly as possible.

METRO offers real-time information through service alerts.

As Beryl churned toward the Texas coast on Sunday, residents were still boarding up homes and stocking up on supplies. A voluntary evacuation was issued for Galveston’s West End where low-lying areas aren’t protected by the seawall.