Economic Loss in U.S. From Beryl Between $28B and $32B, Report Shows

Total damage and economic loss from Hurricane Beryl in the U.S. is expected to be between $28 and $32 billion, according to preliminary estimates from AccuWeather.

Beryl, the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic, brought numerous tornadoes and flooding through eastern Texas, into Arkansas and southeastern Missouri, before moving toward the Midwest and then New England.

Beryl is now a tropical rainstorm. It is expected to “continue to produce a variety of life-threatening dangers over the coming days” as the storm moves through the Midwest and then Northeast, bringing the risk of heavy rainfall and flooding from Illinois and Indiana to northern and central New England over the few days, an AccuWeather forecast stated.

Beryl is also expected to bring severe thunderstorms east of its track.

Beryl roared across Jamaica and the Cayman Islands nearly two weeks ago. It is estimated that insurable losses will be between $400 million and $700 million, while estimated insurable losses in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula are also less than $1 billion, according to catastrophe modeler CoreLogic. The modeler estimated there will be between $1 billion and $1.5 billion insurable losses across the Windward Islands, where Beryl struck prior.

The storm grew more intense after its landfall over Grenada, reaching Category 5 with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph at its peak, which according to the National Hurricane Center, was the earliest Category 5 storm to form in recorded history.

The storm struck Texas over the weekend, leaving thousands without power.

As of Tuesday morning, about 2.3 million homes and businesses were still without power in eastern Texas, concentrated in the Houston area, according to PowerOutage.us.

“Very warm waters helped Beryl intensify in its final hours over the Gulf of Mexico before it made landfall in southeast Texas, amplifying the damage and impacts,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter stated. “Millions of people were left without power in scorching summer heat. Several people were tragically killed in flood waters and by falling trees. This was a devastating storm early on, in what is expected to be a very busy and impactful hurricane season for the United States.”

Oceanic and atmospheric conditions put Atlantic hurricane risk in the U.S. has put the season’s outlook on par with some past massive and destructive seasons, storm experts said last month.

Beryl, which Porter said “will go down in the history books as a record-shattering hurricane,” makes that forecast looking increasingly accurate.