Hurricane Beryl roars toward Mexico after leaving destruction in Jamaica, Eastern Caribbean

Hurricane Beryl ripped off roofs in Jamaica, jumbled fishing boats in Barbados and damaged or destroyed 95% of homes on a pair of islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines before rumbling toward the Cayman Islands and taking aim at Mexico’s Caribbean coast after leaving at least seven dead in its wake. What had been the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, weakened slightly but remained a major hurricane. Its eye was forecast to pass just south of the Cayman Islands overnight.

Quick Read

• Hurricane Beryl roars toward Mexico after leaving destruction in Jamaica and eastern Caribbean
• Hurricane Beryl, now a major hurricane with winds of 125 mph, is approaching Mexico’s Caribbean coast after causing significant damage in the eastern Caribbean.
• The hurricane damaged or destroyed 95% of homes on islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and left at least seven people dead across the region.
• Beryl is expected to pass just south of the Cayman Islands before making landfall near Tulum, Mexico, early Friday as a Category 2 storm.
• In Jamaica, Beryl ripped off roofs, knocked out power, and blocked roads with fallen trees and utility poles. Prime Minister Andrew Holness warned that the worst might not be over.
• The Mexican Navy is patrolling tourist areas like Tulum, urging tourists to prepare for the storm.
• Beryl is forecast to cross the Yucatan Peninsula and restrengthen over the Gulf of Mexico, potentially making a second landfall near the Texas-Mexico border.
• The hurricane has caused widespread destruction, including in Barbados and Grenada, where multiple fatalities were reported due to fallen trees and other storm impacts.

The Associated Press has the story:

Hurricane Beryl roars toward Mexico after leaving destruction in Jamaica, Eastern Caribbean

Newslooks- PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico (AP) —

Hurricane Beryl ripped off roofs in Jamaica, jumbled fishing boats in Barbados and damaged or destroyed 95% of homes on a pair of islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines before rumbling toward the Cayman Islands and taking aim at Mexico’s Caribbean coast after leaving at least seven dead in its wake. What had been the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, weakened slightly but remained a major hurricane. Its eye was forecast to pass just south of the Cayman Islands overnight.

Mexico’s popular Caribbean coast prepared shelters, evacuated some small outlying coastal communities and even moved sea turtle eggs off beaches threatened by storm surge, but in nightlife hotspots like Playa del Carmen and Tulum tourists still took one more night on the town. Mexico’s Navy patrolled areas like Tulum telling tourists in Spanish and English to prepare for the storm’s arrival.

Early Thursday morning, the storm’s center was about 500 miles (800 kilometers) east-southeast of Tulum, Mexico. It had maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (205 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 21 mph (32 kph). Beryl was forecast to make landfall in a sparsely populated area of lagoons and mangroves south of Tulum in the early hours of Friday, probably as a Category 2 storm. Then it was expected to cross the Yucatan Peninsula and restrengthen over the warm Gulf of Mexico to make a second strike on Mexico’s northeast coast near the Texas border. The storm had already shown its destructive potential across a long swath of the southeastern Caribbean.

Beryl’s eye wall brushed by Jamaica’s southern coast Wednesday afternoon knocking out power and ripping roofs off homes. Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Jamaica had not seen the “worst of what could possibly happen.” “We can do as much as we can do, as humanly possible, and we leave the rest in the hands of God,” Holness said.

Several roadways in Jamaica’s interior settlements were impacted by fallen trees and utility poles, while some communities in the northern section were without electricity, according to the government’s Information Service. 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 Organization, 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.

In Cancun Wednesday afternoon, Donna McNaughton, a 43-year-old cardiac physiologist from Scotland, was taking the approaching storm in stride. Her flight home wasn’t leaving until Monday, so she planned to follow her hotel’s advice to wait it out. “We’re not too scared of. It’ll die down,” she said. “And we’re used to wind and rain in Scotland anyway.”

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