In Jamaica, Hurricane Beryl uprooted roofs, capsized fishing boats in Barbados and damaged or destroyed 95% of the houses located on two islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines before heading towards the Cayman Islands and targeting Mexico’s Caribbean coast after killing at least seven people. It was no longer the first storm to become a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, but it did get weaker and still qualified as a major hurricane. The eye of Beryl was predicted to cross south of Cayman Islands overnight.
Shelters were prepared along Mexico’s touristy Caribbean coast; some small outlying coastal communities were evacuated; while sea turtle eggs were moved from beaches facing storm surge but Playa del Carmen and Tulum nightlife areas tourists stayed up for one more night.
The Mexican Navy warned tourists off this way using English and Spanish at places like Tulum.
On early Thursday morning, the storm’s center was about 800 kilometers (500 miles) east-southeast of Tulum, Mexico. It had maximum sustained winds of 205 kph (125 mph) with a west-northwestward movement of about 32 kph (21 mph).
Beryl would be likely to hit an area with few residents consisting mainly of lagoons and mangroves near Tulum around Friday dawn as perhaps a Category 2 hurricane before crossing Yucatan Peninsula, restrengthening over warm waters of Gulf of Mexico for another round against northeastern coasts bordering Texas State.
Across an extensive part of southeastern Caribbean, this tempest had already shown its capacity for destruction.
Jamaica encountered Beryl’s eye wall in which power lines went down leaving homeowners homeless after their roofs disappeared on Wednesday afternoon along parts of Jamaica’s southern coastline. Prime Minister Andrew Holness then said that this would not be “the worst that could happen.”
He added: “We can do what we can do humanly, and the rest is left to God.”
According to the officials at the government’s Information Service, several inner roads in Jamaica were blocked by fallen trees and utility poles while electricity had not been restored in some communities in the northern part of the country.
Perhaps the worst moment for Beryl was when it ravaged two tiny islands near Lesser Antilles.
NEMO St. Vincent Grenadines director Michelle Forbes said that Hurricane Beryl has damaged around 95% of dwellings on Mayreau and Union Island.
Grenada reported three fatalities while Carriacou registered one death. Also, authorities mentioned about another victim from St. Vincent and The Grenadines whereas 3 more perished up north in Venezuela (with four others missing).
The Associated Press reports that a tree falling on a house killed one person in Grenada, according to Kerryne James, environment minister.
The Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves says he will rebuild his country’s island chain.
Donna McNaughton, a 43-year-old cardiac physiologist from Scotland took approaching storm easy as she basked under sunshine in Cancun Wednesday afternoon.
Being airborne until Monday gave her time to do what her hotel suggested which was waiting out its coming arrival. “Not too scared of” we are. It will wane,” she added. “And we have wind plus rain like this all day long back home.”
