Storm Beryl has made landfall on the Texas coast with a dangerous storm surge and strong winds.
More than 2 million homes and businesses are without power, according to CenterPoint Energy in Houston.
The storm’s centre hit land as a Category 1 hurricane around 10am BST time, 85 miles south-west of Houston with top sustained winds of 80mph.
Beryl strengthened and become a hurricane again late on Sunday, the US National Weather Service reported.
The storm had weakened after leaving a path of deadly destruction through parts of Mexico and the Caribbean days ago.
High waters quickly began closing roads around Houston, which was already under flood warnings after heavy storms in recent months washed out neighbourhoods and knocked out power across the nation’s fourth-largest city.
Hundreds of flights from Houston’s two major commercial airports were delayed by mid-afternoon yesterday and dozens more have been cancelled.
Jack Beven, senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Centre said: ‘Beryl’s moving inland but this is not the end of the story yet.’
The storm’s centre is expected to move over eastern Texas on Monday and then through the lower Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley on Tuesday and Wednesday, the weather service said.
People on the Texas coast boarded up windows and left beach towns under evacuation order.
As the storm neared the coast, Texas officials warned on Sunday it could cause power outages and flooding but also expressed worries that not enough residents and beach vacationers in Beryl’s path had heeded warnings to leave.
Dan Patrick, who is serving as the state’s acting governor while governor Greg Abbott is travelling overseas, said: ‘One of the things that kind of trigger our concern a little bit, we’ve looked at all of the roads leaving the coast and the maps are still green.’
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