For the tri-county area, relief came in Beryl’s eye, moving more towards Katy at the last moments before landfall on July 8, at about 4 a.m. on the Gulf of Mexico coastline. Hurricane Beryl’s effects began to be felt at 10 p.m. on July 7. Although it’s considered the dry side that the area was on, much-needed rain came by the bucketful. However, along with the rain came the wind that gusted up to 70-plus miles an hour in some locations.
The aftermath of Beryl’s passage was felt across the tri-county area, with downed trees and power lines causing over 2,700 San Bernard Electric customers to lose power. Eagle Lake alone experienced up to 800 power outages, while heavy winds and rains led to flooding in multiple locations. Bellville, Eagle Lake and Sealy were nearer to the eye than the rest of the tri-county area.
Just as the winds died down and the rain subsided, Hurricane Beryl was downgraded to a tropical storm within hours of landfall. City and county work crews were busy cleaning debris and setting out cones to try to get the citizens back to normal life. Electric companies had planned for power outages to restore power. However, the outages were so severe that it is predicted that services across the affected areas would not be fully restored until later this week. Electric service providers could not give a county-by-county breakdown at press time. It is estimated that thousands in the tri-county area experienced power outages.
