TULUM, Quintana Roo - Texas officials are urging coastal residents to brace for a potential hit by Beryl as the storm is expected to regain hurricane strength.
Since battering Mexico's Yucatan Pennisula, Beryl has moved back into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico where it was expected to regain hurricane strength Saturday.
“We’re expecting the storm to make landfall somewhere on the Texas coast sometime Monday if the current forecast is correct,” said Jack Beven, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “Should that happen, it’ll most likely be a category one hurricane.”
The earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean islands earlier in the week. It then battered Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane, toppling trees but causing no injuries or deaths before weakening to a tropical storm as it moved across the peninsula.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted late Friday that Beryl would intensify on Saturday before making landfall, prompting expanded hurricane and storm surge watches. Beven said a hurricane warning is expected to be issued later on Sunday.
The storm will bring a dangerous storm surge, flooding portions of the Texas coast, hurricane force winds to a small area and tropical storm conditions with heavy rains to much of the rest of the Texas coast, he said.
“There is an increasing risk of damaging hurricane-force winds and life-threatening storm surge in portions of northeastern Mexico and the lower and middle Texas coast late Sunday and Monday,” the center warned.
Texas officials warned the state's entire coastline to brace for possible flooding, heavy rain and wind as they wait for a more defined path of the storm. On Friday, the hurricane center issued hurricane and storm surge watches for the Texas coast from the mouth of the Rio Grande north to San Luis Pass, less than 80 miles (128.75 kilometers) south of Houston.
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