Hurricane Beryl’s remnants & rain churn toward Canada, US Northeast

The remnants of Hurricane Beryl spawned at least one tornado and threatened flooding Wednesday as the system churned toward Canada and the northeastern US after leaving millions in the Houston area without power.

Beryl, which landed in Texas on Monday as a Category One hurricane, was a post-tropical cyclone and centred over southeastern Michigan around midday Wednesday with maximum sustained winds of 30 mph (45 kph), the National Weather Service reported.

A flood watch was in effect for parts of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, and rainfall warnings were issued for portions of southern Canada. The storm dumped three to six inches (7.6 to 15.2 centimetres) of rain in northern Indiana, saturating the ground and putting trees at risk of toppling in strong winds forecast for Wednesday afternoon.

Parts of northern New York and New England could see heavy rain Wednesday, said Bob Oravec, a weather service forecaster. After Thursday, only a few showers can be expected across New England, he said.

A tornado touched down Tuesday in Posey County in southwestern Indiana, officials said. The storm collapsed much of a warehouse and ripped off roofs, derailed train cars and damaged mobile homes. No injuries were reported.

Jerrod Prather, a supervisor for Nutrien Ag Solutions, told the Evansville Courier & Press that he watched the tornado on a security camera.

“I saw it come down and kind of lift back up, and then come down again,” he said.

Beryl has been blamed for at least seven US deaths — one in Louisiana and six in Texas — and at least 11 in the Caribbean.

More than 1.6 million homes and businesses in Texas still lacked electricity late Wednesday morning, down from a peak of over 2.7 million on Monday, according to PowerOutage.us. More than 56,000 homes and businesses lacked power in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.