Hurricane Beryl was on radars for more than 11 days, and its likely southeast Texas landfall was projected for at least five days before it crashed ashore July 8 in Matagorda Bay near Indianola, a ghost town abandoned nearly 140 years ago after being twice-destroyed by hurricanes.
The storm was not a surprise.
Yet, in Category 1 Beryl’s wake, at least eight people in Texas and Louisiana are dead, and more than 2.3 million homes and businesses in the Houston area were without power early July 9, down from more than 2.7 million the day before, according to PowerOutage.us.
“While we tracked the projected path, intensity, and timing for Hurricane Beryl closely for many days, this storm proved the unpredictability of hurricanes as it delivered a powerful blow across our service territory and impacted a lot of lives,” said Lynnae Wilson, senior vice president of CenterPoint Energy, the region’s largest electrical utility with more than 4 million area metered and natural gas customers in a July 9 press release….