Important Takeaways:
- More than 1.5 million Texas households were without power Monday morning as Hurricane Beryl made landfall on the state’s central coast. Beryl’s eye crossed the Texas coastline early Monday near Matagorda, Texas.
- Texas Division of Emergency Management officials warned that rain bands will lead to flooding in many areas of the state.
- Shortly before sunrise, Hurricane Beryl made landfall near Matagorda, Texas. National Weather Service updates indicate the storm brought winds of up to 80 mph and a life-threatening storm surge to the coastal area.
- On Sargent Beach. Forecasters predicted a storm surge of up to six feet in the area.
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Important Takeaways:
- Hurricane Beryl is now turning its wrath on Mexico as a Category 2 storm, weakened but still dangerous after tearing through a series of Caribbean islands in recent days.
- The NHC is forecasting dangerous hurricane-force winds, a storm surge of four to six feet and damaging waves as the storm moves inland across the northern Yucatan Peninsula during the day. It says the region could see four to six inches of rain, with up to 10 inches in some areas.
- Beryl is expected to emerge over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico on Friday night and move toward northeastern Mexico and southern Texas by the end of the weekend, bringing heavy rainfall with it.
- Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to increase the readiness level of the state’s emergency operations center starting Friday morning.
- The United Nations is making $4 million in emergency relief funds available to Grenada, Jamaica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. A growing number of humanitarian aid groups are also mobilizing to help affected residents across the Caribbean.
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Important Takeaways:
- Tropical Storm Warnings Issued for Texas, Mexico Coasts Ahead of likely future Alberto
- Tropical storm warnings have been issued for parts of the Texas and Mexico coasts.
- This system will move west toward Mexico.
- Flooding rain, coastal flooding, gusty winds, high surf and rip currents will affect the western Gulf Coast of the U.S., especially Texas.
- Flooding rain is also likely in parts of Mexico and Central America.
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Important Takeaways:
- Florida is bracing for another day of rain and devastating flash flooding despite already reeling from historic rainfall that has left entire neighborhoods underwater.
- An additional 2 to 5 inches of rain could fall, the fourth straight day of flood concerns for South Florida.
- Elsewhere in the U.S., 31 million people are under the risk for severe storms Friday across two areas: one across the western high Plains and the other in the Northeast.
- This weekend 12 million people are under heat alerts across the West and into Southwest Texas with triple-digit highs forecast including a high of 113 in Phoenix forecast Saturday.
- Highs in the 90s are forecast for the Southeast, where high humidity will make it feel like over 100 degrees.
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Important Takeaways:
- Governor Greg Abbott announced earlier this month the creation of the Texas Top Ten Most Wanted Criminal Immigrants List
- “When President Joe Biden took office, he dismantled every effective border policy his predecessor put into place,” Governor Abbott said in a written statement on June 5. “As a result, we have seen record high levels of illegal immigration, including dangerous criminals and terrorists who are a threat to the public safety of our state and our nation.”
- The Texas Department of Public Safety announced the arrest this week of 38-year-old Victor Hugo Chox Gonzalez, a Mexican national illegally present in the United and the number one most wanted criminal illegal immigrant.
- Crimes allegedly committed by members of the Texas 10 Most Wanted Criminal Illegal Immigrants list include:
- Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child
- Indecency with a Child by Sexual Contact
- Assault of a Public Servant
- Murder with a Deadly Weapon
- Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child Under 14
- Sexual Assault
- Terroristic Threat
- Burglary with Intent to Commit Another Felony
- Attempt to Commit Smuggling of Persons for Pecuniary Benefit
- Eight members of the most-wanted list remain at large. Officials and members of the public with information on these fugitive migrants should call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-252-TIPS (8477).
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Important Takeaways:
- ‘People will die’: Biden’s border order will worsen migrants’ risks, experts say
- El Paso mayor says order ‘will save lives’ but advocates express concern over heat and exploitation by criminals
- The aggressive new election-year policy triggers a block on most asylum claims once the number of people crossing the border without authorization exceeds a certain level
- The mayor of El Paso, Texas, Democrat Oscar Leeser, said the order “will save lives, keep people from dying in the desert, jumping over the walls and falling, as well as keep them from being exploited”
- Dora Rodriguez, executive director of Salvavision, a group that provides aid to migrants on both sides of the border, said “People will die. Because they will not stop crossing”
- Experts and human rights advocates in El Paso are concerned that the unintended consequences of Biden’s executive action may be to worsen the risks for asylum seekers, while not deterring them from taking those risks
- And they warned that more obstacles in the asylum process will increase exploitation by criminals.
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Important Takeaways:
- Second destructive derecho in a week slams central US with 100-mph winds, baseball-sized hail
- On Thursday, a derecho plowed across parts of Texas and Louisiana, blasting the Houston metro area with winds up to 100 mph that left at least seven people dead and more than 1 million customers in the dark.
- Cleanup efforts are underway across parts of the central U.S. after a destructive derecho blasted across Kansas with 100 mph wind gusts and baseball-sized hail, causing major damage and knocking out power to tens of thousands of utility customers across the region.
- This is now the second derecho in a week to blast parts of the U.S. On Thursday, a derecho plowed across parts of Texas and Louisiana, blasting the Houston metro area with winds up to 100 mph that left at least seven people dead and more than 1 million customers in the dark.
- Damaging wind reports stretch more than 400 miles across Kansas
- Millions of people from the Plains to the Midwest will be on alert for powerful thunderstorms capable of producing damaging wind gusts, large hail and possible tornadoes.
- The highest threat of severe weather will be found across portions of the Plains on Monday, but the potential for powerful storms will also have people in cities like Chicago, Milwaukee and Des Moines in Iowa on alert.
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Important Takeaways:
- Houston Mayor John Whitmire said strong winds and “some twisters” hit the area, downing power lines, spreading debris and leaving many roads impassable
- The winds reached 100 mph and included some tornadoes
- A widespread 3 to 6 inches of rain fell north of Houston, with one of the highest rainfall totals reported being around 6.90 inches in 24 hours near Romayor.
- In Texas, the night’s destruction was evident even before sunrise, with high winds tearing out windows of high-rise buildings in downtown Houston, and inundating the region with flooding.
- Streets in the area were littered with glass, electrical lines and other detritus strewn by the ferocious storms.
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Important Takeaways:
- Evacuations slowly resume on Pelican Island Causeway after barge hits bridge
- A barge hit the Pelican Island Causeway Bridge leading to a closure in both directions Wednesday morning, according to officials.
- It happened just before 10 a.m. Crews from the Texas Department of Transportation went to the scene to assess the damage. The bridge remained closed until it was deemed safe to use. City officials said there were no reported injuries.
- Around 2:30 p.m., one lane of the causeway reopened, allowing those who were stranded on Pelican Island to leave, but around 6:30 p.m., the bridge was once again closed down after officials said it started to shift. A line of cars was stuck on the island and officials said they were working to come up with an evacuation plan.
- Around 9 p.m., officials said evacuations were once again underway, but slowly and carefully.
- Power was temporarily interrupted to Pelican Island, which is home to Texas A&M University at Galveston.
- His primary concerns now are getting those stuck on the island off and cleaning up what’s spilled into the water.
- Luckily, power was restored to the island.
- There is an oil spill and city officials said the U.S. Coast Guard is on scene to assess that. Emergency officials said the capacity of the barge is 30,000 gallons and the amount that leaked was unknown.
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Important Takeaways:
- Rioting charges against 211 illegal migrants caught on video by The Post pushing past Texas troops and attempting to break into the US on March 21 have all been dismissed — based on a technicality
- El Paso County Judge Ruben Morales dismissed the cases at a hearing Wednesday, May 8, saying his “hands [are] tied” after the state did not provide a required transfer order, a simple document, to move the matter from district to county court
- The migrants were all arrested by Texas authorities on riot-related charges after the rush at an area known as Gate 36, as seen in the shocking footage captured by The Post.
- The riot charges carried a maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and up to a $2,000 fine.
- The migrants were mostly adult males who severely outnumbered the guardsmen, who had been trying to place them into groups so they could be taken into CBP custody.
- Nine migrants were later singled out as the “ringleaders” of the stampede and eight of them are in custody facing additional felony charges, which are being heard separately from the riot charges.
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