Hurricane Beryl moved through the greater Katy area on July 8 as a category 1 hurricane, bringing over eight inches of rain and strong winds with gusts up to 75 mph. The storm made landfall near Matagorda Bay at about 4 a.m. Monday, and winds and rain reached the Katy area around 7 a.m., lasting until early afternoon. The intense winds damaged trees and created debris across the region while drainage systems were challenged by the rainfall. Beryl was downgraded to a tropical storm around 11 a.m.

The City of Katy issued various alerts throughout the day Monday, ranging from flood advisories and flash flood warnings to updates on trash pickup and city office closures and notification that the meeting of city council would take place as scheduled.

The recent storm also caused widespread power outages across the region, with over 2 million CenterPoint customers without power late Monday, according to CenterPoint data reported by broadcast outlets in the Houston area. As part of the Katy ISD’s ongoing partnership efforts with local agencies serving the Katy community, Katy ISD coordinated with CenterPoint Energy to open up Rhodes and Legacy Stadium parking lots as a staging area for the CenterPoint trucks and crews supporting area response needs.

“We wanted you to be aware of this in case there were any concerns regarding the activity in the Katy ISD stadium parking lots this week,” said a district spokesperson in a July 9 press release.

Many neighborhoods in the Katy area remained without power as of press time on Tuesday. The retail center in the 500 block of S. Fry Road, where a Target store and a Randall’s Supermarket are located, was completely closed early Tuesday. Residents in the Cinco Ranch area reported that traffic signals in their area were not working.

Internet service was also spotty following the storm. Fidium Fiber issued this statement on Facebook on Monday: “Our Emergency Operations Center is deploying generators and backup power where feasible to restore services. If your service has been impacted, please visit our Support page https://bit.ly/4eT157w for troubleshooting tips.” The statement also gave the customer service number as 1-844-968-7224 and advised that call wait times were longer than usual.