A stunning video shows the fury of Hurricane Beryl as it lashed coastal Texas before dawn Monday.
Motorists were left stranded in their vehicles when powerful winds and driving rain made travel impossible, according to the clip posted on social media.
Traffic lights flashing red were also pushed nearly horizontal and bobbed in the air as a street sign twisted on its pole.
Surfside Beach, TX got absolutely rocked for an hour, solid hurricane winds and storm surge got close to the edge of the bridge. Finally calming down a bit. #txwx pic.twitter.com/5mLn5NH7UM
— Max Olson (@MesoMax919) July 8, 2024
The unconfirmed, 30-second recording was made by Max Olson, a self-described "storm chaser" and independent insurance appraiser from Norman, Oklahoma.
"Surfside Beach, TX got absolutely rocked for an hour, solid hurricane winds and storm surge got close to the edge of the bridge. Finally calming down a bit," Olson wrote.
In nearby Houston, the deadly storm knocked out power to 1.5 million homes and businesses as flooding forced rescues, and a man was killed when a tree toppled onto a house in the suburb of Humble, according to the Associated Press.
Beryl swept ashore around 4 a.m. as a Category 1 hurricane with top sustained winds of 80 mph and was forecast to weaken to a tropical storm Monday while moving across eastern Texas on Monday.
It's expected to weaken further as it turns northeast into the lower Mississippi Valley and continues through the Ohio Valley on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.
Last week, Beryl became the earliest Atlantic storm to grow into a Category 5 hurricane as it crossed the Caribbean, wreaking destruction and killing 11 people in Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Venezuela and Jamaica.
It struck Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 2 hurricane and weakened to a tropical storm before regaining strength over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
