Hurricane Beryl hit the Houston region on Monday morning, causing widespread power outages and at least three deaths, according to local officials.
More than 2 million homes and businesses in the Houston area were without electricity, CenterPoint Energy officials said. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is acting governor while Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is out of the country, said crews cannot get out to restore it until the wind dies down.
High water quickly closed streets. Houston officials said they had performed at least 15 high-water rescues and more were ongoing.
But as the storm passed, people began getting out and exploring their neighborhoods to assess the damage.
Julie Dickinson said what made her nervous was the wind.
The Houston-area native has been through hurricanes before, but the wind speeds that came with Beryl prompted her to tell her daughters, 11 and 7, to leave their rooms for places in the house without windows.
"I kind of thought this is going to be your typical storm. This shouldn’t be too bad, but the amount of wind that we got – it surprised me," she said. "It was scary this morning. And I took my girls, I woke them up and made them come and lay in the hallway."
She said she's heeding warnings from officials who asked residents to stay in place while work crews work to get the area back online.
She's one of millions without power and isn't sure when it'll be back up. And it isn't just the perishables inside her refrigerator she's concerned will go to waste.
"I actually have an autoimmune disorder. I take the medication that has to be refrigerated," she said. "And that’s usually my biggest paranoia. It has to stay refrigerated. I have extra cartridges [of medication]. And so I'm sitting here thinking like, what am I going to do?"
Another unsettling thing for Dickinson is how early Beryl formed. Before slamming into Texas, forecasters and scientists noted the storm was the earliest to ever strengthen into a Category 5 as it churned over the Atlantic.
"It is unexpected that it’s in July. And I feel like it’s directly related to climate change. And that’s very concerning moving forward, she said. “At what point do we give up and leave Houston?”
Tom Letchford, who was keeping busy in the storm's aftermath cleaning up what he could around his west Houston home, said he isn't surprised that forecasters expect a busy hurricane season. Letchford works in the energy industry, and he said it's been known for some time that each season will pick up.
Like Dickinson, he said the early storm likely caught some people by surprise.
"I think we’re going to have a few more events, and whether they hit us or they hit some other part of the Gulf Coast, you know, remains to be seen," he said. "But it is going to be an active season from what we can tell."
If Letchford needed a milestone to mark surviving another storm, a felled tree offered one up Monday morning. When he moved into the house 21 years ago, there were 10 large trees spread throughout the backyard. Six were cut down because of age. But the others were casualties of various storms.
"This was the last one in the yard – a big one in the middle," he said. "At about 8:30 this morning, it just came over and smashed two cars parked in the driveway."
If there is one bit of advice he can offer his neighbors though, it's not to be shy about asking for help.
"If you have a need, don’t try to hide the need. Don’t try to just think you can tough it through," Letchford said. "You tend to make a lot of friends in hurricanes or post hurricanes, is what I find. And those are great relationships because you’ll find that the neighborhood will come together and help each other out."
See more photos gathered by Houston Public Media here.
