See photos, video of Hurricane Beryl damage in Houston, Galveston and the Texas coast (2024)

FAQs

What is the deadliest hurricane to hit the Houston Galveston area? ›

The Great Galveston hurricane made landfall on September 8, 1900, near Galveston, Texas. It had estimated winds of 140 mph (225 km/h) at landfall, making the cyclone a Category 4 storm on the modern day Saffir–Simpson scale.

Several properties along the seawall in Galveston were severely damaged by extreme winds and heavy rain brought on by Hurricane Beryl on July 8, 2024.

Texas has never had a hurricane make landfall in the state while at Category 5 strength. Hurricane Harvey was the most recent major hurricane to hit, striking near Rockport in 2017. The map below shows the location of each tropical landfall in Texas since 1850.

700 dead were buried at sea the 2nd day after the storm. Creamating [sic] the dead. The ashes of over 100 storm victims who perished in the tidal wave.

Beryl knocked out power to nearly 3 million people in Texas — with most of those in the Houston area — after making landfall July 8. The Category 1 storm unleashed heavy rain and winds that uprooted trees and damaged homes and businesses along the Texas Coast and parts of Southeast Texas.

Its center passed just west of Houston, dragging the hurricane's violent eastern edge directly over the city's core. Beryl, which had reached category 5 strength in the Caribbean, hit Texas as a category 1 storm.

According to the NHC, Hurricane Beryl made landfall over Matagorda, Texas at 4 a.m. (9 a.m. UTC) as a Category 1 cyclone with maximum sustained wind speeds of 80 mph and a minimum central pressure of 979 millibars (mb).

The hurricane that destroyed Galveston on September 8, 1900, is the nation's deadliest natural disaster. Although its death toll will never be known precisely, the 1900 Storm claimed upwards of 8,000 lives on Galveston Island and several thousand more on the mainland.

On Oct. 12, 1979, Super Typhoon Tip's central pressure dropped to 870 mb (25.69 inches Hg), the lowest sea-level pressure ever observed on Earth, according to NOAA. Peak wind gusts reached 190 mph (306 kph) while the storm churned over the western Pacific.

Since 1851, there have been 10 recorded category 4 hurricanes to make landfall in Texas. Some of the more well-known storm names include Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and the 1900 Galveston Hurricane. Hurricane Harvey moved slowly over the Houston area, dropping nearly 50 inches of rain that flooded the city.

What was the worst storm to hit Texas? ›

Hurricane Carla, the largest hurricane of record in Texas, occurred on September 8–14, 1961. During the storm, a tornado ravaged Galveston Island; at Port Lavaca, Carla's wind gusts were estimated at 175 miles per hour.