Storm Beryl kills two, knocks out power as it churns across Texas | U.S. & World [Video]

(Reuters) -Tropical Storm Beryl’s howling winds and torrential rain killed at least two people, closed oil ports, grounded hundreds of flights and knocked out power to more than 2 million homes and businesses in southeast Texas on Monday.

Beryl, the season’s earliest Category 5 hurricane on record, weakened from a hurricane after pounding the coastal Texas town of Matagorda with dangerous storm surges and heavy rain before moving across Houston, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

The storm, which was expected to rapidly weaken as it moved inland, swept a destructive path through Jamaica, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines last week. It has killed at least 12 people in the Caribbean and Texas.

In Texas, a 53-year-old man and a 74-year-old woman were killed in two incidents by trees that fell on their homes in the Houston area on Monday, according to Harris County officials.

The state’s …