Texas issues disaster declaration for 40 counties ahead of Beryl landfall: live

As Hurricane Beryl approached Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula this week, officials scrambled to evacuate an especially vulnerable group – sea turtle eggs.

Mexican officials moved to save the eggs on Wednesday ahead of the storm, which made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane near Tulum early Friday.

Officials relocated the eggs using sand-filled coolers and helped insulate their nests along the beach, the Associated Press reported. Storm surge and rises in sea level — conditions which Beryl and other storms cause — pose significant threats to sea turtle eggs, because they can’t hatch if they’re swept out to sea.

Beryl, which became a tropical storm after hitting Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, was made 10-30 percent more intense due to human-induced climate change, according to a rapid analysis study by Climameter.

Beryl’s higher intensity was also driven by natural weather patterns in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, according to the Climameter study.

Beryl made history the earliest recorded Category 5 hurricane this week.

“It’s really scary stuff,” Steve Maximay, a climate and agriculture expert in Grenada, previously told The Independent.

”When you talk about Category 4 and 5, there are very few systems or protocols that can prepare you for that,” Maximay continued. “You can have resilient buildings but category five winds can move concrete structures.”

Hurricane Beryl’s growth into a Category 5 storm can be partly attributed to record-warm ocean temperatures. High water temperatures can contribute to sea level rise and hurt marine life in addition to fueling strong storms like Hurricane Beryl. Ocean temperatures will likely continue to rise even if we curb greenhouse gas emissions, according to NOAA.

Island nations are at the front lines of the climate crisis, given their vulnerability to violent storms and sea-level rise.

The Alliance of Small Island States, an organization designed to create a unified voice for small island nations to address the ongoing climate crisis, denounced the climate crisis and its impact on island nations.

Residents on the coast should be cautious of the life-threatening rip currents that Storm Beryl will create, the National Weather Service said.

Officials in Corpus Christi are preparing for the arrival of Storm Beryl as a Category 1 Hurricane on Monday morning, and have asked for visitors to end their trips and return home as soon as possible.

Residents have also been advised to board up their windows and secure their homes with sandbags to guard against possible flooding.

“We’re taking the storm very serious and we’re asking the community to take the storm very serious as well,” Corpus Christi Fire Chief Brandon Wade said on Friday during a news conference.

City officials said that the city had distributed 10,000 sandbags in less than two hours on Friday. They handed out their total supply of sandbags ahead of the storm’s arrival.

National Weather Service projections show Storm Beryl’s projected landfall in the US will be along Texas’ southeast coast just south of Corpus Christi.

The storm is expected to make landfall in Texas early Monday morning, but the region will see rains from the storm beginning late on Sunday night.

The storm currently has maximum sustained winds close to 60mph, with tropical-storm-force winds extending up to 125 miles from its center.

Hurricane season is upon us, known for disastrous flooding and high-speed winds in coastal areas of the United States and in the Caribbean and Central America, and emergency management officials are urging people to stay prepared.

Unlike previous hurricane seasons, this summer brings record hot temperatures nationwide and an early onset of storms. Hurricane season runs June 1 to Nov. 30, but usually the most hurricanes occur in September and October, said Jaime Hernandez, the emergency management director for Hollywood, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast.