Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appears to have violated federal ethics law in significant ways when filing recent disclosures of his assets and liabilities, creating confusion about his net worth and holdings, a review by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found.

Among them: Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, reported owning seven homes but said he earned no income from any. Yet all but one was listed for rent during the reporting periods, and some current residents and neighbors at those addresses confirmed that the properties were rented, the news organizations found. Receiving income and not reporting it is a violation of federal disclosure law, three ethics experts said.

Additionally, Paxton did not disclose mortgages for three condos at a Utah golf resort that federal law requires him to list as liabilities if they are not personal residences.

He also valued his stake in a vacant plot of Texas land at up to $50,000 on last year’s filing, but his business partner told the newsrooms Paxton’s share for years has been worth about $1 million. Federal financial disclosure law requires property to be listed at fair market value.

The apparent errors and omissions the newsrooms found obscure the extent of Paxton’s income streams, assets and debt, making it difficult for voters to make sense of his finances as they mull whether to support him in November’s election, the ethics experts said.

“It reflects either pure sloppiness on Paxton’s part or a deliberate effort to conceal some of his investments and property holdings,” said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for the nonpartisan good-government group Public Citizen.

If Paxton wins, an incomplete picture of his finances could prevent watchdogs from evaluating his conflicts of interest as a senator, Holman and others said.

The apparent omissions are part of a pattern for Paxton. Over three terms as attorney general, he has withheld financial information that could explain how he became a multimillionaire and had the resources to purchase more than a dozen properties in five states. He began including many of these on his state disclosures only after the Texas Ethics Commission closed a loophole in 2024 that Paxton had cited to leave them off. Most were acquired while Paxton earned a government salary of $153,750.

In the new federal disclosure, filed in August after Paxton received a three-month extension, he reported a net worth between $1 million and $27 million. That is a significantly higher range than the negative $1.9 million to $11.1 million net worth he reported a year ago, before he had secured the Republican nomination but after he had declared his candidacy for federal office.

The spike was driven not by Paxton’s acquisition of more assets but because the reported value on several of his properties soared.

Paxton’s report omitted listing as assets seven properties worth about $5.2 million collectively, including the Utah condos for which he did not disclose mortgages. He co-owns all of his known real estate holdings with his estranged wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, property records show. The eight he reported are held by their blind trust, which is managed by a family friend.

Federal rules do not require candidates to report as assets personal homes or properties from which they don’t earn money, even if the properties are worth millions.

At a time when voters feel anxious about their own personal finances and dislike the idea of politicians getting rich in office, it would be wise for Paxton to be more transparent about his wealth, said Texas ethics and campaign finance lawyer Andrew Cates.

“If it were me trying to get people’s vote, I would err on the side of transparency rather than not,” Cates said.

Paxton declined to be interviewed and did not answer detailed questions about how he filled out the disclosure forms. Madison Cercy, a spokesperson for his campaign, said Paxton “has had a long and successful career outside of public service, including running his own small business as a lawyer. Stirring up partisan allegations is nothing more than a bad attempt to manufacture controversy where none exists.”

Before being elected to the state Legislature in 2002, Paxton worked at a law firm in the Dallas area and was a corporate attorney for JCPenney. His state financial disclosure for 2001 listed assets totaling no more than $170,000, a ProPublica and Tribune analysis found.

By 2015, his household net worth had grown to $5.4 million, according to financial records lawmakers subpoenaed in 2023 after impeaching Paxton on charges that he took bribes in exchange for helping an Austin real estate investor.

The records, few of which were admitted into evidence during the 10-day Senate trial that resulted in his acquittal, document how Paxton built a diverse portfolio that included investments in a cellphone tower, an HVAC company, a cement supplier and a police body camera manufacturer. He netted $2.2 million when Motorola acquired the body camera firm in 2019, according to his income tax return from that year.

Shortly after, he went on a real estate buying spree, snapping up six properties in Oklahoma, Florida, Utah and Hawaii. His impeachment defense team said Paxton made a prudent shift toward real estate at a time of rock-bottom interest rates.

Questions about Paxton’s integrity have dogged him in the race for U.S. Senate. His opponent, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, entered September with a narrow polling lead — uncharted territory in a state where Republicans have not lost a statewide race in 32 years.

A University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll released last week found that just a third of respondents viewed Paxton as “honest and trustworthy.” The same day the statewide poll was published, a super PAC supporting Talarico hit the airwaves with an ad that labeled the attorney general as “the most corrupt politician in Texas.” The commercial included a reference to Paxton’s recently disclosed net worth.

Talarico’s net worth, according to his most recent personal financial disclosure, was between $67,000 and $305,000. The range changed little from the previous year. Like Paxton, Talarico did not include his single personal residence among his reported assets.

James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project, said the questions surrounding Paxton’s latest financial disclosures reinforce a longstanding narrative that the attorney general is secretive about his finances and may have leveraged his public position for personal gain.

“It’s his choice how much he explains or doesn’t explain,” Henson said. “But I think that comes with a potential cost, and we’re seeing that in public opinion.”

Paxton’s pivot to real estate appears to be a way to supplement his salary as attorney general. The newsrooms found recent rental listings for six of the properties he disclosed but for which he said he derived no income: two homes in Ocala, Florida; a home and a condo in Austin; a home in College Station, Texas; and a vacation lodge in Broken Bow, Oklahoma.

A tenant confirmed to the newsrooms she’s living at one of Florida houses. At the Austin condo complex, a next-door neighbor said Paxton’s unit has a renter. And the five-bedroom, three-story Oklahoma lodge he owns is listed online as a short-term rental for up to $1,200 a night, with fall bookings filling up fast.

On his disclosure forms, which require real estate income to be reported, Paxton for each property selected the option “None (or less than $201).”

Federal law requires candidates who aren’t currently in Congress to report all loans exceeding $10,000, except those for personal residences. Paxton did not report three mortgages totaling $1.3 million for condos at the Black Desert Resort in southwest Utah, renowned for its world-class golf course. He purchased the properties in February; the reporting period for the most recent disclosure ran through mid-May.

Reporters found the mortgage documents in local land records. Each contains an addendum to the mortgage that is used for rental properties, said New Jersey real estate lawyer Daniel M. Shlufman. That addendum removes a requirement that the unit be owner-occupied and allows the lender to collect rent directly from tenants if Paxton were to default on the loan.

Paxton purchased another condo at the resort in 2025, which he disclosed on his most recent report as an asset and a liability. The land records show he obtained a $640,000 mortgage for it. The resort advertises a program in which it leases units purchased by investors, but it declined to say if Paxton’s properties were enrolled in it.

“It’s kind of mind-boggling to think about having four homes at one resort property and imagining those are for personal use,” said Cynthia Brown, a senior lawyer at the government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

The most significant changes between Paxton’s 2025 and 2026 reports were the valuations of the Oklahoma lodge and a plot of land outside of Fort Worth, whose value he said had increased by millions of dollars.

He appears to have switched from reporting the properties’ assessed values, which are set by the local county, to the loftier estimates of what they would fetch on the open market.

Paxton’s initial use of the lowball values appears to defy federal rules aimed at bringing candidates’ disclosed property values in line with what they’re actually worth. While the Senate Ethics Committee instructs filers that they can use a recent tax assessment to set the worth of certain property, they must adjust it to market value if it is assessed below that. In these cases, valuations must be disclosed as a specific dollar figure rather than a range.

On both his annual reports as a Senate candidate, Paxton listed ranges for the value of each property he disclosed.

Last year, Paxton reported the Oklahoma lodge, just north of the Texas border, as worth between $100,001 and $250,000. The local county assesses the property at $176,000. Its estimated market value, meanwhile, is more than $1.5 million, according to real estate websites. This year, Paxton’s disclosure valued the property at between $1 million and $5 million.

Likewise, Paxton valued a 42-acre plot of undeveloped land in Johnson County, south of Fort Worth, at between $15,001 and $50,000 last year. The county assesses the property as farmland worth $20,008, but estimates its market value is $2.9 million. This year, Paxton’s disclosure said the property was worth between $1 million and $5 million.

Paxton bought the property in 2006 with a group of investors including Rob Orr, with whom he served in the Texas House of Representatives. Orr, who manages the investment, said in an interview that Paxton’s 20% stake is worth about $1 million.

“It would have been around a million for quite a while, probably the last four or five years,” Orr said. “It has increased in value because of zoning and because of time.”

The group bought the plot to hold onto, Orr said, until creeping growth from the Dallas-Fort Worth area made it attractive for redevelopment. He said the group is negotiating a sale to a developer. Last year, Orr persuaded the City Council in Burleson to rezone the land, which had been restricted to agriculture, to permit retail and housing.

Paxton’s move to significantly revalue his assets without explaining why is “very strange,” said Margaret Dylus-Yukins, senior counsel for ethics at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, which advocates for strong disclosure rules. Dylus-Yukins, who worked for six years analyzing executive branch officials’ financial disclosures for the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, said the agency would ask filers to explain major changes in writing.

“When you have public officials that appear to be fudging the numbers on their disclosure forms, and the Senate Ethics Committee is letting that slide, then you’re not only eroding trust in the committee but the candidate himself,” Dylus-Yukins said, referring to the significant differences between the filings.

The ethics committee did not respond to requests for comment. Candidates or senators who willingly falsify financial disclosures can be fined up to $50,000 or prosecuted for making a false statement to the government, a felony. The committee rarely investigates senators and has not formally sanctioned a member in 19 years.

Candidates do not have to file any more federal financial disclosures before the November election.

by Lomi Kriel, The Texas Tribune

April 25, 2026

A flight carrying an Egyptian family to Michigan late Saturday abruptly turned around after a Texas judge ruled that the six should remain in the U.S. pending further litigation.

The last-minute reversal was the most recent development in a dizzying series of events this week that attorneys said added to ongoing questions over the executive’s power compared to the judiciary when it comes to President Donald Trump’s purview of immigration and his administration’s push for expanded deportations.

A Texas federal judge Saturday ruled that the family, believed to be the longest held at the controversial South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, should not immediately be deported after immigration agents suddenly re-arrested the mother and her children hours earlier.

The ruling came as the family was on a plane to Michigan, from where the government ostensibly planned to quickly deport them to Egypt, where their attorneys said the mother and her children fear persecution.

The plane, the attorney, Michigan-based Eric Lee, posted on X, “constitutionally cannot be allowed to take off.”

It would not have been the first time that Trump’s administration deported immigrants after federal judges ordered against their removal. Among the most well-known cases is that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia of El Salvador, who was living in Maryland before he was mistakenly sent to a notorious mega-prison in that Central American country last year despite an earlier U.S. court order barring Abrego Garcia’s deportation. His case spurred global criticism, although he has since returned to the U.S., as litigation in his case is ongoing.

“Stop this travesty of justice from taking place,” Lee, the Gamal family attorney, posted on X earlier Saturday, referring to the El Gamal family.

Lee added that the “attempt to remove the El Gamal family is in violation of a federal court order and must be halted immediately. The rights of the entire population and the most basic principles of separation of powers are at stake.”

U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio ruled hours after the family’s re-detention Saturday that given the emergency appeal by lawyers, the family’s deportation to Egypt should be paused. Biery agreed with his own previous ruling as well as one by U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Chestney this week that the family, which includes 5-year-old twins who have been held at Dilley for more than 10 months, should be freed while they await an immigration judge’s decision on their asylum case.

The family received widespread attention after the mother and her children earlier this year began publicly raising alarms about the treatment at the facility, including medical neglect, rotting food, impotable water, and disrespect for their Muslim faith. Last week, lawyers said that the mother was rushed to the emergency room after months of suffering from an unidentified bump, which she feared may be cancerous due to her family history and possibly heightened by the lack of medical care at the detention center.

In an emergency request to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Saturday, the family’s attorneys argued that halting their immediate deportation is necessary in part because of the “highly irregular actions that the government has taken” against the family since they were detained last year. The attorneys said that the family was re-arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at their first check-in since being freed Thursday.

The family’s sudden re-detention ignited widespread criticism by advocates and some congressional Democrats.

“This is outrageous and undermines the rights of every American,” U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, an Austin Democrat, posted on X. He noted that if the administration can “ignore a court order to go after this family, anyone could be next.”

Spokespeople for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to questions Saturday. But in a statement earlier this week that followed the family’s release, DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis wrote that her agency “will continue to fight for the removal of those who have no right to be in our country especially national security threats.” She argued that the family had received “full due process,” an account that has been disputed by their attorneys and a Houston Chronicle report this month citing previous judicial decisions.

The El Gamal family, who came to the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2022 and later applied for asylum, has been detained since June after the father, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was charged with attacking mostly Jewish protesters in Boulder, Colorado, accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at demonstrators supporting Israeli hostages. He allegedly wounded at least 29 people and an 82-year-old woman died from her injuries. The father, who pleaded not guilty, remains in federal custody on more than 100 charges related to the incident.

Trump’s administration, shortly after the family was arrested last June, publicized the case, promising “Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids. Final Boarding Call Coming Soon.”

His wife, who met her husband in an arranged marriage when she was young, and her children have not been charged with any crimes. They have repeatedly maintained that they did not know about Soliman’s plans and had an estranged relationship with him. The family has since disavowed the father and is no longer in contact with him, their attorney said, and his wife has filed for divorce.

The family’s case went viral last month after its lawyers shared heartbreaking accounts in the children’s own words and drawings of the harm they said they were suffering at Dilley.

“We have been here for nine months. I really miss playing with my toys and my watch,” wrote the 9-year-old in accounts first shared with The Texas Tribune. “Please get us out of here.”

“Imagine being punished for something that you didn’t do, something you would never support, and then being trapped in detention for months,” wrote 18-year-old Habiba El Gamal, the family’s eldest daughter. “Despite having overwhelming evidence to prove our innocence, the truth is ignored.”

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

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DALLAS — After months of laying the groundwork to hand-count thousands of ballots in the March 3 primary, the Dallas County Republican Party announced on Tuesday it has decided not to do so, opting instead to contract with the county elections department to administer the election using voting equipment.

The decision spares the party the pressure it likely would have faced if a hand-count had delayed results beyond the state’s 24-hour reporting requirements in the state’s closely watched GOP primary for U.S. Senate, among other offices.

In a statement posted on social media, Dallas County Republican Party Chair Allen West said he decided to work with the county to “conduct a precinct-based, community, separate Election Day electoral process.” The move, he said, “reduces the liabilities” of the party. “In this case, discretion is the better part of valor.”

The decision reverses months of statements suggesting the party was seriously preparing to count tens of thousands of Election Day ballots by hand — a move that would have affected all Dallas County voters, regardless of party.

Under Texas law, if one party hand-counts ballots, both parties must abandon countywide Election Day voting at vote centers and require voters to cast ballots at assigned neighborhood precincts. Democrats had planned to use voting equipment to tabulate their results, but would have been forced into precinct-only voting if Republicans proceeded with a hand count. It’s unclear if the GOP’s intention to use precinct-based voting would lock Democrats into the same arrangement; the Dallas County Elections Department has not responded to requests for more information.

Republicans in Dallas County and elsewhere have pushed in recent years to count ballots by hand as President Donald Trump and others have decreased trust in voting machines by spreading unfounded claims about their reliability. However, election officials and voting experts have repeatedly warned that hand-counting ballots at scale is costly, labor-intensive, slower to produce results and more prone to human error than machine tabulation. State law also does not require audits of hand-counted ballots and severely limits public observation of the counting process.

In early December, West said the party had raised more than $400,000 toward a hand-count effort and recruited more than 1,000 workers. But there were still unresolved concerns about staffing, training, security, facilities, and funding, particularly as the Texas Secretary of State’s Office warned counties it may not have enough money to reimburse unusually high primary costs if many jurisdictions choose to hand-count.

Hand-counting would also have required significantly more polling locations and workers than recent primaries. In elections that are hand-counted, Texas law requires ballots to be cast and counted at assigned precincts, and in all elections, the law mandates that counting continue without interruption once polls close. Election workers must be paid at least $12 an hour, and large hand counts can stretch late into the night or beyond.

In an interview on Tuesday, West said the party would need at least 3,000 hand-counters but had recruited fewer than half that number. “We cannot take that risk of not being able to have the appropriate amount of counters because it would put our election judges in an untenable legal position,” he said. “We’ve got 63 days to go — early voting will start the 16th of February.”

Under Texas law, political parties control how ballots are counted in primaries but must report results within 24 hours after polls close. Party chairs have been warned that court orders could be required if hand-counts delay reporting.

By contracting with the county, Dallas County Republicans would avoid those logistical hurdles and allow both parties to continue using voting equipment and established election procedures. According to West, the Dallas County GOP is currently working on a contract with the county and expects it to be signed on Wednesday.

Nathaniel Rakich contributed.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington, who carried Trump’s tax and spending megabill, is retiring

by Gabby Birenbaum, The Texas Tribune
November 11, 2025

Lubbock Republican Rep. Jodey Arrington announced his retirement after a decade of service at the U.S. House, ending an impressive career that saw him rise to the rank of Budget Committee chair and opening up yet another congressional seat in Texas.

Arrington will serve out his term, which ends in January 2027, but will not seek reelection.

Arrington, 53, is a fiscal hawk who has amassed considerable power leading the budget panel. He was a key cog in the passage of Republicans’ tax-and-spending megabill, which bore his name and passed through his committee earlier this year. He was recently in the running to succeed former Texas Tech University System Chancellor Tedd. L Mitchell, who announced his retirement earlier this year. The system ultimately selected former state Sen. Brandon Creighton for the job.

The West Texas native had already received President Donald Trump’s endorsement for next year’s election. But in a retirement video, Arrington said he felt it was time to pass the torch.

“I believe, as our founding fathers did, in citizen leadership — temporary service, not a career,” Arrington said. “And it’s time to do what George Washington did, and to ride off into that big, beautiful West Texas sunset, and to live under the laws that I passed.”

In the video, Arrington listed numerous local accomplishments — including getting cotton back under Title I of the 2018 farm bill, expanding Interstate 27 and bringing a B-21 “Raider” bomber aircraft to Dyess. He named the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as a distinct highlight, calling it “the most consequential piece of legislation in modern history.”

“It was my highest privilege to author and lead President Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ the principle legislative vehicle for advancing the America First Agenda, which included the largest tax and spending cuts, largest single investment in national and border security, and most significant welfare reforms in U.S. history,” Arrington said in a statement. “Let me be clear, I haven’t lost an ounce of passion for promoting West Texas values in Washington or a shred of fight for defending our freedoms and way of life, but I believe it’s time for this chapter in my journey to come to an end.”

He did not announce his next steps, saying that he planned to spend more time with his family and will “look forward to my next leadership challenge.” Arrington has said he wants to pass another Republican spending bill — the GOP still has a year of a guaranteed trifecta before the midterms.

The Lubbock Republican’s retirement ends a lengthy political career. Arrington worked in George W. Bush’s gubernatorial administration and then as a senior advisor in the Bush White House. He went on to be chief of staff for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and worked on the federal effort to rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

Arrington then returned to Lubbock to work under then-Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance, who had previously represented Arrington’s same West Texas district in Congress. Arrington began serving as the Texas Tech University System’s chief of staff in 2006, then was tapped to be vice chancellor for research and commercialization in 2011. After a stint leading a health care innovation company and an unsuccessful Texas Senate bid, Arrington entered Congress in 2017.

Arrington quickly rose through the ranks of the Budget Committee and became its chair when Republicans took the majority after the 2022 midterm election. Long focused on efforts to reduce the national debt, he has advocated for various plans to significantly cut spending and balance the budget — a stance that has at times led to conflict with fellow Republicans.

Arrington will leave behind both the powerful Budget Committee chairmanship and a safely deep-red GOP seat, creating an opportunity for a Republican successor to begin a lengthy congressional career. Situated in rural West Texas and including Abilene and Lubbock, the 19th Congressional District, which was left untouched by Republican map-drawers in the Legislature’s recent redistricting, voted for Trump by a 52-point margin in 2024, his best performance in all 38 Texas congressional districts. But prospective Republican successors will need to make quick decisions — the filing deadline is Dec. 8. Democrat Kyle Rable first announced his campaign in May.

Between the new congressional map passed by the Texas Legislature to create more Republican-friendly seats and the retirements of Republican Reps. Michael McCaul and Chip Roy, the 2026 midterm is poised to usher in an entire class of Republican freshmen in Texas’ Washington delegation.

One of three Texans to hold committee chairmanships, Arrington’s name was floated for speaker during the 2023 House GOP race for the gavel. His decision to retire is another blow to Texas’ power in the House — already a far cry from the last Republican trifecta from 2017 to 2019, when seven Texans held chairmanships.

Only 10 of Texas’ 38 representatives have more seniority than Arrington. Of those, three are facing difficult reelection prospects due to redistricting and two are retiring.

Disclosure: Texas Tech University System has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

Efforts to restore power to 2.7 million customers whose service was knocked out by Hurricane Beryl will take multiple days, state officials said Monday evening while warning of persisting danger even as the storm moved on.

More than 2.7 million electricity customers without power

July 8, 2024 at 3:26 p.m. Over 2.7 million Texas customers were without power as of 12:59 p.m. on Monday, based on estimates from PowerOutage.us and CenterPoint Energy. Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune

Hurricane Beryl has knocked out power for more than 2.7 million Texas customers, as of 12:59 p.m. Monday, based on estimates from PowerOutage.us and CenterPoint Energy.

CenterPoint announced at 3:30 p.m. that its crews were beginning the process of restoring power to the 2.26 million Texas customers who lacked electricity. CenterPoint has not yet provided an estimate of when millions of its customers will regain electricity.

“We are mobilizing all of our available resources, as well as mutual assistance resources from other utility companies, to begin the process of quickly and safely restoring power to our customers,” Lynnae Wilson, senior vice president of Electric Business at CenterPoint. “We understand how difficult it is to be without power for any amount of time, especially in the heat. We are laser focused on the important and time-sensitive work that lies ahead.”

CenterPoint will begin publishing estimates for substantial power restorations after assessing the damage.

Outages are most extensive in the Houston area and coastal counties including Matagorda, where Beryl landed as a Category 1 hurricane at approximately 4 a.m., Monday. Significant outages are also in Galveston County, Calhoun County and Jackson County. As the morning progressed, outages extended further inland and into Deep East Texas to areas including Polk, San Jacinto, Montgomery, Grimes and Washington Counties.

Most of the outages are among customers who receive power from CenterPointEnergy. CenterPoint is the main electricity provider for the vast majority of residents in Harris and Fort Bend counties and also provides electricity to dozens of East Texas communities. The provider is not currently providing county-specific numbers on outages.

CenterPoint warned people to stay away from downed wires and to not attempt to remove tree limbs or objects from power lines. Customers are instead advised to report outages and hazardous conditions to their power company or local authorities.

As of noon, about 25,000 AEP Texas customers remained without electricity. Most of those outages were in the upper Corpus Christi area –– a loop starting from Port Lavaca to Bay City to El Campo and to Victoria. AEP crews began restoring power to some of their customers Monday and expect to have more restoration information in the next 24 hours.

For the more than 25,000 customers of Oncor Electric Delivery who were affected by the outages, power restoration will likely happen on a case by case basis, according to Kaiti Blake, a spokesperson for Oncor.

— Pooja Salhotra and Berenice Garcia

Houston officials ask residents to remain off roads as damage assessment begins

July 8, 2024 at 12:48 p.m. A truck drives through water and downed branches from Hurricane Beryl on Monday in Houston. Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune

Downed tree limbs and power lines, flooded streets, and power outages have Houston officials pleading with residents to stay home.

Houston mayor John Whitmire held a news conference Monday detailing the dire situation the city finds itself in as it took the brunt of Hurricane Beryl.

“We are dealing with a very serious amount of water. Around 10 inches of rain across the city and 90-mile-per-hour winds and hurricane conditions,” Whitmire said. “Please, Houstonians, shelter in place. We are in emergency and rescue mode.”

Whitmire said over 700,000 Houston electricity customers are currently without power, and the region’s two major airports are not open. However, city officials should better understand the situation now that the storm is moving away.

“We are experiencing the dirty side of a dirty storm,” Whitmire said.

The storm's sustained winds were still at 70 miles per hour as it moved from the Gulf Coast into the Houston area. The National Hurricane Center said that up to 10 inches of rain could fall in some places — and some isolated areas of the state may receive 15 inches. Some areas of Houston have already received nearly 10 inches of rainfall, according to data from the Harris County Flood Control District. On Monday morning, local officials in the Houston area said the storm had downed trees and caused street flooding. At least two people died when trees fell onto their residences.

In Rosenberg, a city 35 miles southwest of Houston, a downed tree hit a high water rescue vehicle returning from a rescue, police said on X. Officials there also urged residents to stay off roadways.

Houston Fire Department Chief Samuel Pena underscored the strain on resources due to the high demand for high-water rescues and live wire calls. These are currently the primary service requests, consuming a significant portion of their resources, and they have already helped eight people in high-water rescues.

“Earlier today, we saw a video of a high-water rescue, and you can see how resource-intensive those call types are. We can’t keep using those resources. Please be cautious and heed the warnings,” Pena said.

— Stephen Simpson, Pooja Salhotra and Emily Foxhall

Beryl makes landfall in Texas as Category 1 hurricane

July 8, 2024 at 5:37 a.m. A National Weather Service graphic shows potential rainfall from Hurricane Beryl, which made landfall near Matagorda at about 4 a.m. on Monday. The storm is expected to move northeast on a track through East Texas, finally leaving the state early Tuesday. Credit: National Weather Service

Hurricane Beryl made landfall near Matagorda around 4 a.m. Monday as a Category 1 Hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm strengthened through Sunday evening and had maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour when it came ashore. A 5 a.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center warned about life-threatening storm surge and inland flooding Monday.

Hundreds of thousands of Texans are without power, including many in coastline counties such as Brazoria and Matagorda, according to PowerOutage.us. The full scope of the storm's damage is not yet clear — and it could cause more Monday as it moves northeast through the state.

The hurricane center said the coast was experiencing life-threatening storm surge. It also warned of flash floods throughout the southeastern portion of the state as the storm continues moving inland, bringing five to 10 inches of rain to some areas — or up to 15 inches in some isolated places.

Category 1 storms primarily damage unanchored mobile homes, shrubbery and trees. They can also do extensive damage to electricity lines and cause power outages that last several days.

— Pooja Salhotra

Disclosure: CenterPoint Energy has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/08/hurricane-beryl-texas-damage-updates-rain/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

Hurricane Beryl has knocked out power for more than 2.7 million Texas customers, as of 12:59 p.m. Monday, based on estimates from PowerOutage.us and CenterPoint Energy.

Beryl makes landfall in Texas as Category 1 hurricane

July 8, 2024 at 5:37 a.m. A National Weather Service graphic shows potential rainfall from Hurricane Beryl, which made landfall near Matagorda at about 4 a.m. on Monday. The storm is expected to move northeast on a track through East Texas, finally leaving the state early Tuesday. Credit: National Weather Service

Hurricane Beryl made landfall near Matagorda around 4 a.m. Monday as a Category 1 Hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm strengthened through Sunday evening and had maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour when it came ashore. A 5 a.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center warned about life-threatening storm surge and inland flooding Monday.

Hundreds of thousands of Texans are without power, including many in coastline counties such as Brazoria and Matagorda, according to PowerOutage.us. The full scope of the storm's damage is not yet clear — and it could cause more Monday as it moves northeast through the state.

The hurricane center said the coast was experiencing life-threatening storm surge. It also warned of flash floods throughout the southeastern portion of the state as the storm continues moving inland, bringing five to 10 inches of rain to some areas — or up to 15 inches in some isolated places.

Category 1 storms primarily damage unanchored mobile homes, shrubbery and trees. They can also do extensive damage to electricity lines and cause power outages that last several days.

— Pooja Salhotra

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Families of survivors of the Robb Elementary School shooting are suing the package shipping companies UPS and FedEx for allegedly violating state and federal law and their own corporate safety standards.

The lawsuit was filed on the two-year mark of the shooting, which saw a gunman enter the school and murder 19 children and two teachers. The families said the shipping companies bear responsibility for the trauma and distress caused to the survivors of the massacre.

On the day of the shooting, the gunman was armed with a weapon ordered online and shipped to Oasis Firearms in Uvalde where it was then picked up by the shooter.

The lawsuit claims the companies then shipped an enhanced trigger system to the gunman’s house. This allowed the gunman to convert it into a fully automatic or semi-automatic weapon.

The lawsuit cited the UPS conditions of carriage as proof of a violation. The UPS conditions state that, “Shipments must not contain goods which might endanger human or animal life or any means of transportation."

The families also said that the shipment of the Hell Fire trigger to the gunman’s house was a violation of school zone area protections. The gunman’s house was less than 1,000 feet away from the Robb Elementary School zone.

According to the lawsuit, the gunman was not 18 when he bought the weapon and Hell Fire trigger online. It claimed that FedEx shipped the AR-15 and then Oasis Firearms illegally transferred the gun to the shooter even though he was 17 at the time of the purchase. The shooter was also able to purchase ammunition from Oasis that was used in the massacre.

This lawsuit was filed on the same day families of victims and survivors filed wrongful death lawsuits against Instagram parent company Meta, the maker of the Call of Duty video game “Activision,” and Daniel Defense, the company that manufactured the AR-15 style assault rifle the gunman used.

In a statement, UPS said, "Our hearts go out to the Uvalde victims and their families. Shipping firearms and components is highly regulated; UPS complies, and requires its customers to comply, with all applicable federal laws. The lawsuit has no merit and we will defend accordingly."