Hurricane Beryl has ripped off roofs in Jamaica, battered fishing boats in Barbados and damaged or destroyed 95% of homes on two islands in St Vincent and the Grenadines before rumbling toward the Cayman Islands and Mexico’s Caribbean coast.
At least nine people have died as a result of the storm so far.
What had been the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic weakened to a Category 2 by Thursday afternoon.
Jack Beven, senior hurricane specialist at the US Hurricane Centre, said: “The biggest immediate threat now that the storm is moving away from the Cayman Islands is landfall in the Yucatan Peninsula (in Mexico).”
The storm’s centre was about 135 miles (215km) west of Grand Cayman island and 275 miles (445km) east-southeast of Tulum, Mexico. It had maximum sustained winds of 110mph (175kph) and was moving west-northwest at 18mph (about 30kph).
Beryl’s eye wall brushed by Jamaica’s southern coast Wednesday afternoon. Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Jamaica had not seen the “worst of what could possibly happen”.
Hurricane #Beryl Advisory 23: Weather Deteriorating in the Cayman Islands With Strong Winds, Dangerous Storm Surge, and Damaging Waves Expected There Later This Morning. https://t.co/tW4KeGe9uJ
Advertisement— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) July 4, 2024
On Thursday morning in Kingston, telephone poles and trees were blocking the roadways.
Authorities confirmed a young man died on Wednesday after he was swept into a storm drain while trying to retrieve a ball. A woman also died after a house collapsed on her.
Residents took advantage of a break in the rain to begin clearing debris.
On the island, 65% remained without electricity, along with a lack of water and limited telecommunications. Government officials were assessing the damage, but it was hampered by the lack of communication mainly in southern parishes that suffered the most damage.
A visit to the south-central parish of Clarendon saw residents attempting to mend damaged roofs and clear downed trees. Many roadways in the area remained partially blocked by downed electricity and telecommunication poles.
A man, armed with a machete as he and other residents attempted to clear debris, was grateful that the lives of him and his neighbours were spared.
“I am just grateful for life although Beryl destroyed a lot of roofs and we don’t have any water or light (electricity),” he said, giving his name only as Seymour.
The National Hurricane Centre in Miami said that “weakening is forecast during the next day or two, though Beryl is forecast to remain a hurricane until it makes landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula”.
Mexico’s popular Caribbean coast prepared shelters, evacuated some small outlying coastal communities and even moved sea turtle eggs off beaches threatened by storm surges.
In Playa del Carmen, most businesses were closed on Thursday and some were boarding up windows as tourists were jogging and some locals walked their dogs under sunny skies.
In Tulum, Mexico’s Navy patrolled the streets telling tourists in Spanish and English to prepare for the storm’s arrival. Everything was scheduled to shut down by midday.
The premier of the Cayman Islands, Juliana O’Connor, thanked residents and visitors on Thursday for contributing to the “collective calm” ahead of Beryl by following storm protocols.
“We have done everything possible that we could have done to face the various challenges ahead of us,” she said.
The head of Mexico’s civil defence agency, Laura Velazquez, said that Beryl is expected to be a Category 1 hurricane when it hits a relatively unpopulated stretch of Mexico’s Caribbean coast south of Tulum early on Friday.
But once Beryl re-emerges into the Gulf of Mexico a day later, she said it is again expected to build to hurricane strength and could hit right around the Mexico-US border, at Matamoros.
That area was already soaked in June by Tropical Storm Alberto.
Ms Velazquez said temporary storm shelters were being set up at schools and hotels in case they are needed.
She said efforts to evacuate a few highly exposed villages — like Punta Allen, which sits on a narrow spit of land south of Tulum — had been only partially successful.
The storm had already shown its destructive potential across a long swath of the southeastern Caribbean.
The worst perhaps came earlier in Beryl’s trajectory when it smacked two small islands of the Lesser Antilles.
Michelle Forbes, the St Vincent and Grenadines director of the National Emergency Management Organisation, said that about 95% of homes in Mayreau and Union Island have been damaged by Hurricane Beryl.
Three people were reported killed in Grenada and Carriacou and another in St Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said.
Three other deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where four people were missing, officials said.
One fatality in Grenada occurred after a tree fell on a house, Kerryne James, the environment minister, told The Associated Press.
St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has promised to rebuild the archipelago.
