 Breaking news this hour from townhall.com. I'm John Scott. Hurricane Beryl has been downgraded to a tropical storm after sweeping into Texas as a Category 1 storm with heavy rains and powerful winds. Patty Richardson of Freeport, Texas, says the storm has been intense. Probably not the scariest, but it's very intimidating to sit in a 900-square-foot house, a little bungalow, and listen to all of this. You can feel the house shaking.