The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Beryl’s eyewall was “skimming the southern coast of Jamaica.”
Rain and strong winds lashed the island for hours as residents heeded authorities’ calls to seek shelter until the storm passed. Much of the capital was left without power.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Wednesday afternoon that about 500 people were in shelters.
“We are putting a lot of emphasis on ensuring they are comfortable and well taken care of,” she said in a social media post.
Prior to Beryl’s arrival in Kingston, people had boarded up their windows, fishermen pulled their boats out of the water and workers were taking down roadside billboards to protect them from the forecasted strong winds.
Kingston resident Pauline Lynch said she stocked up on food and water in anticipation of the storm. As wind combined with light rain, Lynch said, “I have no control over what is coming, so I just have to pray that all the people of Jamaica are safe and that we don’t suffer any deaths or losses.”
By midday, the howling of the wind could already be heard in the capital, turning the sea into choppy crests as Beryl’s eye brushed the southern coast of the island.
AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter said, “We are very concerned about the wide range of life-threatening impacts in Jamaica,” including storm surge, hurricane-force winds and flash flooding.
“Threat”
Porter said Beryl was “the strongest and most dangerous hurricane threat Jamaica has faced, probably in decades.”
A hurricane watch was in effect for Jamaica and the islands of Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. Beryl was forecast to weaken slightly over the next few days but would remain at Category 3 or greater hurricane strength as it passed near the Cayman Islands on Thursday and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, the NHC said.
Jamaica was under a state of emergency and the island was declared a disaster area hours before Hurricane Beryl hit.
Holness said the declaration would remain in effect for the next seven days. He also announced an island-wide curfew between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
Security forces “will be fully mobilized to maintain law and order and assist with relief measures. Security forces have developed strategic plans to address any potential threat of looting or other opportunistic crimes as soon as the hurricane passes,” Holness warned.
Evacuation
An evacuation order was in effect for communities in Jamaica vulnerable to flooding and landslides. Holness urged Jamaicans to leave low-lying areas.
A hurricane warning was also in effect for Haiti’s southern coast and the eastern coast of the Yucatan. Belize issued a tropical storm warning from its border with Mexico to Belize City.
Beryl became the earliest Category 5 storm in the history of the Atlantic hurricane season on Monday night, peaking at 165 mph (270 km/h) winds on Tuesday before weakening to a Category 4 storm.
The storm was centered about 65 miles (100 kilometers) west-southwest of Kingston on Wednesday afternoon. It had maximum sustained winds of 140 miles per hour (220 kilometers per hour) and was moving west-northwest at 20 mph (31 km/h).
Jamaica’s southern coast, where Kingston is located, was forecast to bear the brunt of Beryl, with coastal water levels rising 6 to 9 feet (1.8 to 2.7 metres) above normal tide levels in some areas.
There is a threat that heavy rains, expected to dump 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of water and up to 1 foot (30 centimeters) in isolated areas, could trigger flash flooding and mudslides on the mountainous island, Brennan said.
Mexico’s Caribbean coast was bracing for Beryl on Wednesday. The government issued a hurricane warning for the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancun.
National Civil Protection Coordinator Laura Velázquez said Beryl is forecast to make two landfalls on Mexican territory. She said the hurricane is forecast to make landfall between Thursday night and early Friday along a relatively unpopulated stretch of the Caribbean coast between Tulum and Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Because the coast is largely made up of lagoons and mangroves, there are few resorts or hotels in the area south of Tulum.
“Tormenta tropical”
The hurricane is expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it crosses the Yucatan Peninsula and re-emerge as a storm over the weekend in the Gulf of Mexico. Velázquez said Beryl is expected to make a second landfall in Mexico in the Gulf Coast states of Veracruz or Tamaulipas near the Texas border.
As Beryl continued its journey across the Caribbean Sea, rescue teams were trying to determine the extent of the damage caused when it made landfall on Carriacou, an island off Grenada.
Authorities reported three deaths in Grenada and Carriacou and one in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Three deaths were also reported in northern Venezuela, where four people were missing, according to officials. About 25,000 people in that area were affected by the heavy rains brought by Beryl.
One of the deaths in Grenada was caused by a tree falling on a house, Environment Minister Kerryne James told The Associated Press. The nearby islands of Carriacou and Petit Martinique suffered the most damage, and dozens of homes and businesses were flattened on Carriacou, she said.
Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said Tuesday that there was no power, roads were impassable and the possibility of more deaths “remains a grim reality.”
His counterpart in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, has promised to rebuild the archipelago. He said that 90% of the homes on the island have been destroyed.
The last Category 3 or stronger hurricane to hit the southeastern Caribbean was Ivan, 20 years ago, which caused dozens of deaths in Grenada.
Source: With information from AP
