Hurricane Beryl Serves Up Eye Opener

The largest early season hurricane on record (120 years), Hurricane Beryl, made its way through the Gulf/Caribbean. The system worked its way west to Mexico, then turned northwest to Texas. The hurricane reminded us, yes, it's hurricane season, time to prepare.
 
Why Was I In The Hurricane Path?

Heading south to Texas from Colorado, I was going to attend our daughter’s dance competition in Galveston. We all had seen the projections as Beryl began to take shape, but we hoped for the best and headed south. By Saturday, July 6, Beryl had shifted from a Mexico landfall to Texas. The wave and wind action had picked up along the beach at Galveston and the dance competition staffers called a special meeting.

The event organizers cancelled events on Monday as the storm was to make landfall. This decision gave parents more decision-making options, including leaving Sunday afternoon, or sticking it out. Sunday saw stronger winds, bands of rain showers as Beryl approached. Surfers were out enjoying the actual waves – something Galveston doesn't see often. They were out until the first downpour occurred at about 10:30 AM.

Another couple of bands of moisture came through drenching the area, but it was still pleasant, just windy.

Landfall Event CAT 1 Hurricane

The storm continued to move north and as soon as the competition was over, we decided to make tracks north.

Late Sunday and into Monday, the storm slowly moved northeast making landfall near Matagorda, TX. I had
just fished in that area Saturday morning, 90 miles down the coast.

I kept in touch with the other parents, and they reported localized flooding, siding, roof and some damage. They said it was quite a night as the house on stilts swayed with the gusty wind.

“The wind was really bad, moving our Airbnb back in forth, so much so, I had to take Dramamine to avoid motion sickness,” said Dan, one of the parents. “The flood, storm surge wasn’t ever a factor as we had maybe 3 inches of water around the cars, but the driving ran/wind managed to push water into all the window and door seams on the house.

“The next night we tried to get a hotel for a little more safety for our last couple nights,” added Dan. “Also, hotels couldn’t honor our reservations due to system/power outages.

“Some hotels had rooms available, but their generator was only powerful enough to power two floors,” said Dan. “It might be a good idea to get a larger generator for future storms, I mean they are situated on the gulf of Texas? The hotels lost money!”

“Our hotel felt safe, but when the hotel’s generator kicked on when the power went out, it came on, failed, fired up again, turned off, and it went off on four hours before they got it running consistently,” said another parent, Erin. “Our closed windows let water in damaging the paint in the rooms and keeping us up as we had to put all towels around the areas to keep the water away from the rest of the room.”

Today’s Update

Even today, July 15, as I share this experience, 262,715 Texas residents are still without power. Then there’s the whole Whataburger map being more reliable for power outage mapping vs. CenterPoint Energy.

On the way back to Colorado, we counted more than 100 power pole digger and bucket trucks from neighboring states. The trucks were filling up at a local Buc-ees, full of linemen on their way to help rebuild the Texas power lines.

Beryl accounted for 33 deaths with 13 in the Houston area. Two million were without power. The remnants of the storm also hit across the US with power outages and another death in Vermont.

If you are going to use a portable generator, make sure you don’t run it indoors. At least two Houston deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Generator Source Can Help You Avoid Downtime

Whether you manage a hotel, resort or own a home in a hurricane prone area, get your generator ready. This is easy to do! A regular service maintenance plan with our team can make sure your industrial standby unit is in A+ condition.

If your generator can’t power your entire facility, we can help you upgrade to a larger unit and purchase your current unit. We also offer rentals for recovery etc in TX, FL and the Gulf States. Below are links for more information:

For Generator Sales click here or call (866) 518-1240.
For Generator Service click here.
For Generator Rentals click here.


Why was Hurricane Beryl so unusual?
 
Beryl broke multiple records for early season intensity, becoming the earliest Category 4 and 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic. It formed and intensified in an area that is typically not active until later in the hurricane season.
 
What factors contributed to Beryl's rapid intensification?
 
Warm sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic, running 1-2.5°C above average, provided fuel for Beryl's rapid strengthening.
 
How can people prepare for future hurricanes like Beryl?