Beryl passes by with gusty winds, very little rain

Last week leading into the July 4 holiday weekend, all eyes were on a storm entering the Gulf of Mexico named Hurricane Beryl.

Beryl first formed as a tropical storm on June 28 and rapidly developed into the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season only one day later.

Within 24 hours, Beryl underwent further intensification growing into a dangerous storm and the first ever to reach Category 4 status in the month of June. It eventually grew into a Cat-5 hurricane packing winds at 165 mph and gusts up to 200 mph.

Setting its eye on the Grenada Carriacou Island, Beryl brought devastation to the island’s entire population and then scraped by Jamaica continuing to take a path toward the Gulf of Mexico.

At this time, the initial predicted path had it going toward northern Mexico or the Brownsville area.

Hitting the Yucatan Peninsula on July 4-5 as a Category 2 hurricane, the storm brought heavy rain to the popular vacation spots in Cancún and Tulum.

After its visit to the Yucatan, Beryl entered the Gulf of Mexico losing a lot of intensity and being downgraded to a Tropical Storm.

It was predicted to return to hurricane status and the path now taking it further north to Corpus Christi, toward Victoria and directly over the Lavaca County.

Concerned citizens kept a wary eye on the path as Tropical Storm Beryl, expected to return to a Cat-1 hurricane before slamming into the Texas coast, moved toward a predicted path in the Port Lavaca area.

Lavaca and DeWitt counties were placed under a Tropical Storm warning as well as ariel flood watch and several other weather alerts as Beryl moved toward the mid-Texas coastline on Sunday evening.

Beryl’s eye came ashore around four a.m. Monday morning in the Matagorda area, where it took a track toward Katy and points northward before turning northeast and exiting the state near Texarkana late Monday afternoon.

The damages to the storm are still out, but heavy rains and flooding as well as and estimated two and a half million residents losing electricity took place as it passed over the Houston area.

Meanwhile, Lavaca County residents were thankful the area was by-passed with hurricane winds, but were somewhat disappointed for the lack of the predicted rain that did not fall.

Hurricane Beryl was the first hurricane to form at an early stage of the season as most hurricanes usually do not develop until late August or early September.

According to the storm predictors Beryl will not be the last one to be seen as this year’s hurricane season is predicted to be higher than normal.

Time will tell as Texans and Lavaca County residents look to the Gulf for the next storm to develop.