Biden briefed on Hurricane Beryl after Texas landfall

President Biden is receiving “regular updates” about Hurricane Beryl after it made landfall in South Texas, the White House said Monday.

Beryl first hit near Matagorda, Texas, just before 4 a.m. as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of about 80 mph. Beryl has since weakened to a tropical storm, but it brought significant flooding and wind damage to parts of Texas.

More than 1.5 million people in Houston were without power Monday due to the storm, according to the city’s electric utility, and storm surges across the state made beaches dangerous and flooded coastal structures.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) warned Monday that Beryl is “not a one-day event,” saying that flooding is likely to last as the storm continues to bring rain. Power crews have been unable to make repairs due to long-lasting high winds, he said.

Houston could see up to a foot of rain, according to AccuWeather’s forecast.

At least two people have been killed so far in Texas due to the storm, state officials said.

Beryl, the first hurricane of the season, became the earliest storm ever to reach Category 5 in the Atlantic. It battered the Windward Islands in the southern Caribbean and Jamaica before making landfall in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula on Friday as a Category 2 storm.

The risk of the storm is also not over, as it is forecast to continue northeast toward Arkansas, through the Ohio River Valley and into Canada in the coming days as a tropical depression.

“People in the path of Beryl’s track should not let their guard down this week,” AccuWeather meteorologist Alex DaSilva said in a statement. “Beryl will bring the risk of tornadoes as far away as Ohio. Downpours from Beryl could also cause flash flooding as far north as Detroit, more than 1,100 miles from where Beryl made landfall in Texas.”