AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Hurricane Beryl will bring heavy rain and strong winds to South Texas and even up to Austin, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and state emergency leaders warned Friday. Texans along the coast are urged to prepare over the weekend and avoid traveling on Monday.
Hurricane Beryl is predicted to make its final landfall in the northern Mexico and South Texas area late Sunday night to early Monday morning, while Governor Greg Abbott leads an economic development mission in East Asia. The time at which the hurricane will land is still undetermined.
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“Everyone along the coast should be paying attention to this storm,” Patrick said Friday. “We pray and we hope for nothing more than a rain event. But even a rain event may be very heavy.”
On Saturday, Patrick added 81 counties to a disaster declaration, in addition to 40 counties in the initial declaration. This covers several Central Texas areas including Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, Lee, Milam and Fayette counties.
Patrick and Nim Kidd, the chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, expressed concern that this weather event coincides with the holiday weekend meaning many Texans are currently celebrating at beaches along the coast where the hurricane is expected to make landfall.
“Right now, if you’re along the coast from Brownsville to the Louisiana border, pay attention to this storm,” Patrick said. “Because you have about two days, the rest of today and tomorrow, and some of Sunday to prepare when it hits on Monday.”
Kidd said he is in contact with county judges along the coast to ensure they are equipped with the necessary resources for the upcoming storm, the exact location of its landfall in Texas remains uncertain.
“We need a prepared community, not a panicked community, as the governor mentioned,” Kidd said. “We really won’t know for several more hours exactly where landfall may be, but we have high confidence that this system is coming somewhere to Texas. With that, we would ask that people take the time to make sure that their vehicles are fueled, make sure that they have food and water, and that they’ve taken care of their pets, check on their family members, and take the time now to prepare so that whenever this thing is making landfall, you’re already where you need to be.”
Patrick also made a point of warning Texans who reside inland to be prepared for heavy rains and possible flooding.
“Even up as far as San Antonio, New Braunfels, Waco, maybe even in five or six days in Texarkana, there could be heavy rain,” Patrick said. “And heavy rain could be eight inches, could be 10 inches, could be 12 inches or more, and could be flooding. Because again, this is a slow-moving storm, and hurricanes and tropical storms drop a lot of rain in a short period of time.”
Hurricane Beryl made landfall just north of Tulum, Mexico, Friday morning as a Category 2 storm before weakening into a Category 1. The hurricane is expected to weaken further after it traveled inland across the Yucatan Peninsula. However, it is expected to slowly re-intensify once it moves over the Gulf of Mexico, possibly reaching hurricane strength again.
Meanwhile, Abbott will be visiting Taiwan, South Korea and Japan from July 5-13, meeting with businesses and government leaders to strengthen ‘economic and cultural partnerships,’ as detailed in a press release from the Office of the Texas Governor. These three eastern Asian countries are described as top partners with Texas by the Texas Economic Development Corporation due to mutual trade and foreign direct investment.
This will be the third time in 2024 that the Lt. Gov. has taken the position of acting governor because the elected governor has left the state of Texas, a guideline in Article 4, section 16(c) of the Texas Constitution.
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