REFUGIO COUNTY, Texas – Refugio County has issued a mandatory evacuation for all residents as Hurricane Beryl is expected to land on the Texas coast early next week.
As of 11 p.m. Sunday, the National Hurricane Center announced that Beryl had been upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour.
July 7th 1100PM CDT Update: National Weather Service Doppler radar near Houston, Texas and @53rdWRS aircraft data indicate #Beryl has strengthened and is again a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. For the latest visit https://t.co/tW4KeGe9uJ pic.twitter.com/746NvARkuk
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) July 8, 2024
Refugio County Judge Jhiela “Gigi” Poynter said the county has been added to the Hurricane Watch Advisory.
Poynter said she didn’t want to take any chances since the county is still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Once winds exceed 45 miles per hour, the county’s emergency services will be severely hampered, making it difficult to travel effectively across the county, as Poynter shared.
Once the storm lands, Poynter said Refugio County will shut down its water supply, and hospitals will redirect patients elsewhere.
Poynter said the mandatory evacuation is “no reason to panic.”
For anyone unable to evacuate, the county will provide buses to take them to a shelter outside town.
A spokesperson with the county’s emergency management said buses will depart from the Refugio County Expo Center just after 7 a.m. on Sunday to take people to Laredo.
Why Laredo?
“That is what is available to us,” Poynter said.
“We have very limited capacity as it is. And whether or not there’s an evacuation order, we do have a lot of individuals who are going to leave town. And once they start doing that and taking their families with them, we lose a lot of our capacity, our capacity to operate and function and provide things like emergency services,” said Poynter.
Refugio County Emergency Management can assist anyone without transportation to the Expo Center. They can be reached at 361-526-2820.
For more information on the mandatory evacuation, click here.
KSAT is your Weather Authority. Our team of meteorologists is tracking the latest with Tropical Storm Beryl. Meteorologist Justin Horne will have reports on the ground along the Texas Gulf Coast this weekend.
For the latest on Beryl’s forecast, click here.