By: Amelia Xiao

Hurricane Beryl slammed into Texas early Monday this week, knocking out power in nearly three million homes and businesses. The heavy rain took at least three 3 lives.The high-speed hurricane threatened to destroy more in its path in multiple other states.

The hurricane wind scale measures from 1 to 5, with 1 as the most dangerous and destructive. Hurricane Beryl is marked as a Category 1 hurricane. Texas state and local officials warn that it may take several days to restore power. “We’re not past any difficult conditions,” said Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, warning it would be “a multiple day process to get power restored.”

Luckily, The National Hurricane Center reports that the hurricane later moved east and weakened into tropical depression. Tropical depression is a tropical cyclone that has sustained winds of 38 mph or less. But the fast-paced wind and rain of Beryl is still powerful enough to knock down hundreds of trees and dozens of cars.

Officials from Houston and Harris County said that power crews would be sent into the area to restore the power as quickly as possible. Homes left without air conditioning in the middle of summer would be their first priority. Although the temperatures had cooled slightly due to the storm, they are to be expected to be back up in the 90s as early as Tuesday.

Nim Kidd, Chief of State Emergency Operations, says that the state will be ready to open cooling centers and food and water distribution centers to help.

Image Credit by Ray Bilcliff