At least eight people have died as a result of Beryl, a now-downgraded tropical storm that made landfall on Monday as a hurricane in Texas (USA) and left more than 2.3 million people without electricity on Tuesday in a wide region, including the city of Houston.
In addition to the destruction of homes, infrastructure and fallen trees due to the strong winds, Beryl caused flooding, storm surges and spawned a series of tornadoes that worsened the situation beyond Texas.
The authorities’ report puts the death toll from Beryl at least eight, which also left a large area of southeastern Texas without power amid record temperatures forecast by federal authorities for this week.
At least two of the deaths were caused by falling trees.
In Houston, a civilian employee of the Police Department died after being trapped in floodwaters on a road.
One person in Louisiana was also killed by a falling tree caused by a possible tornado near the town of Benton.
In total, at least eight people have died, but the number could rise as search and rescue efforts continue, authorities said.
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.
By Monday, power had been restored to fewer than 300,000 customers.
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 west of the country, some 40 million people will face temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 38 degrees Celsius) over the next seven days, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). EFE
