San Antonio/The passage of Tropical Storm Beryl through Texas, United States, has left at least eight dead and caused a massive blackout, leaving more than 2.3 million people without electricity on Tuesday in a wide region, which includes the city of Houston.
At least two of the deaths were caused by downed trees. In Houston, a civilian employee of the Police Department died after being trapped in floodwaters on a roadway. Also in Louisiana, one person was killed by a falling tree caused by a possible tornado near the city of Benton.
The death toll could rise as search and rescue efforts continue, authorities said.
Beryl caused a massive blackout, leaving more than 2.3 million people without electricity in a wide region on Tuesday
Meanwhile, CenterPoint Energy, which serves Harris and Fort Bend counties, expects to restore power to at least 1 million customers in Texas by the end of Wednesday. Fewer than 300,000 customers had power restored on Monday.
Temperatures in Texas are expected to reach 40 degrees Celsius (105 Fahrenheit), which will be made worse without air conditioning for those affected by the blackout.
In the western United States, some 40 million people will face temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 38 degrees Celsius) over the next seven days, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
Beryl, which was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm early Monday after making landfall in the southeast of the state on Sunday, will continue to move toward the center of the country and the Great Lakes area, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
Before reaching the United States, Beryl reached the highest category of 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale a week ago in the Caribbean, where it caused several deaths and destroyed numerous structures, and then made landfall early Friday morning in Tulum, Mexico.
Three named tropical storms have formed so far during the Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1: Alberto, Beryl and Chris.
This year, the Atlantic will have a well-above-average hurricane season, with the possibility of up to 13 hurricanes, of which up to seven could be high-category, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
