Beryl live updates: Heat drives Texans to sleep in cars amid outages while the North floods

Crystal Krest and her two children slept in their car on Tuesday night. It was the only place where they could get some cool air near them home in Tomball, Texas.

All the hotels in the city of 12,000 people northwest of Houston were fully booked and their home, which hasn’t had power since Monday morning, was over 90 degrees after nightfall.

“Pretty much everybody in my neighborhood is sleeping in their cars right now because it's just unbearable,” Krest, 41, told USA TODAY on Wednesday. “We can’t sleep in our houses.”

Almost 1.7 million homes and businesses remained without power Wednesday across a swath of Texas, battered by once-mighty Hurricane Beryl that has pushed north and now fuels flood warnings across much of the nation's northern tier.

For the last two days, Krest's family has spent hours in line for gas and meals at fast food chains like Chicken Express and Jack in the Box. With no timeline on when they’ll have power again, Krest bought some bug repellent to at least keep the mosquitoes away while they’re trying to get some rest.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” she said. “I guess we’ll keep sleeping in the car until the power comes back on.”

Beryl, the earliest category 5 hurricane on record, roared through Jamaica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines last week, toppling buildings and power lines and killing at least 11 people. In the U.S., Texas took the brunt of Beryl when it stormed ashore early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane, prompting closures of the largest ports in Texas, including the port of Corpus Christi.

Millions without power as Beryl,tornadoes threaten central US; 8 dead: Live updates

Developments:

∎ Texas power companies reported almost 1.7 million homes and businesses remained without power. Another 55,000 were without power in Indiana, Michigan and Pennsyvania as Beryl made its way north.

∎ AccuWeather estimated the total U.S. economic loss from Beryl at between $28 and $32 billion. This figure includes direct damage from the storm, job and wage losses, interruptions of the supply chain and flight delays and cancellations.

Beryl tracker: See pathand spaghetti models for post-tropical cyclone, hurricane remnants

Stalled storms bring heavy rains to Midwest

The march across land helped weaken the historic category 5 hurricane to a post-tropical cyclone, but the storm remained dangerous Wednesday. The National Weather Service also issued flood watches and warnings across parts of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Vermont and New Hampshire.

Stalled thunderstorms Tuesday brought weather havoc from Missouri up to Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. Rainfall of 3-5 inches was common, and some areas had more, AccuWeather said. Areas in and around Chicago were swamped by heavy rains. In nearby East Chicago, Indiana, Emmett Seymour tried to drive through high water and needed a tow truck to extricate his vehicle.

"Cars smaller than mine that went through the water, so I figured ... I probably could make it through," Seymour told the local CBS TV station. "I underestimated it, I guess."

Tornadoes possible for New York state

Beryl's remnants were centered 35 miles southwest of Detroit early Wednesday with maximum sustained winds of about 30 mph, moving northeast at 20 mph. Rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches, locally higher in some places, was expected across portions of the southern Great Lakes into central and northern New York and northern New England by Thursday, the weather service said. A few tornadoes are possible today, mainly over western and central New York.

In Illinois, the state Emergency Management Agency warned residents and visitors to "grab the umbrella and pay attention to water levels." Some flashflooding could affect areas that don't usually have water, the agency said.

The weather service office in Buffalo, New York, cited "multiple threats today as the remnants of Beryl bring areas of heavy rainfall with localized flash flooding." The office said severe thunderstorms and tornadoes were possible but the main threat would be damaging winds.

Biden, Abbott bicker over Beryl response effort

President Joe Biden issued a Major Disaster Declaration for the damage sustained through Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast. But Biden blamed Texas' state leaders for delaying the federal government's response to Hurricane Beryl, saying the White House had tried for days to track down Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

Patrick is serving as acting governor while Abbott is on a nine-day economic development trip across Southeast Asia. Biden told The Houston Chronicle that his office had tried to contact Abbott and Patrick before it received the state’s major disaster declaration on Tuesday, which allowed federal emergency relief supplies to flow into the state.

Abbott said in a statement posted to X on Tuesday that Biden did not call him despite having his number. Abbott said he’s also had daily calls with state and local officials during the storm.

Patrick in a statement said Biden was politicizing the hurricane and that state officials needed to determine what their needs were before making the request. Patrick dismissed claims he was unreachable.

“He obviously did not know his own employees from FEMA were side-by-side with me for 3 days!” Patrick said.

Extreme heat adds to woes in Texas after Beryl

Compounding the power problem in Texas is a heat advisory for parts of the state expected to push temperatures above 100 degrees. Texas is not the only state feeling the heat − the weather service on Wednesday issued excessive heat advisories, warnings or watches for more than 130 million Americans.

Biden, despite his row with Texas officials, said FEMA had generators and other resources on the ground to support the state even before the storm hit.

"The greatest concern right now is the power outages and extreme heat," Biden said in a statement. "We will provide life-saving and life-sustaining activities, and any other federal resource that Texas needs."

Beryl made its first landfall July 1

Beryl developed over the Atlantic Ocean on June 28 and quickly intensified into a powerful hurricane before making landfall on Carriacou Island on Monday, July 1. Beryl grew stronger and gained Category 5 status with winds of 165 mph as it roared across the Caribbean. Beryl began to lose some wind power as it hit Jamaica, then made landfall in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. At least 11 people died on its journey across the Caribbean, AccuWeather reported.

Conributing: Reuters