Hurricane Beryl is hurtling towards Mexico with crushing 125mph winds set to hit tourist hotspots along the Yucatan Peninsula tonight.
The hurricane has already left destruction in its wake, ripping off roofs in Jamaica, jumbling fishing boats in Barbados and damaging or destroying 95 per cent of homes on two islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Eight people have lost their lives across the Caribbean amid the devastation, with power outages and widespread destruction seeing Grenadian prime minister Dickon Mitchell label the conditions ‘armageddon-like’.
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.
Maps shows the predicted storm path after it pulled away from Jamaica late last night, with the storm now rumbling toward the Cayman Islands before it is expected to slam into Mexico’s east coast.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: A woman walks along the beach of Manresa, covered with garbage after the passage of Hurricane Beryl
JAMAICA: An empty street as people remain indoors amid strong winds and lashing rain from Hurricane Beryl
GRENADA: Wreckage is seen outside battered homes following the passing of Hurricane Beryl, in Petite Martinique, Grenada July 2, 2024
Trees bend in the strong winds from Hurricane Beryl in Montego Bay, Jamaica, July 3, 2024
Flood waters pour onto the street as Hurricane Beryl passes through the area on July 03, 2024
This graphics shows the probabilities of sustained (1-minute average) surface wind speeds equal to or exceeding 39 mph
This graphic shows an approximate representation of coastal areas under a hurricane warning (red), hurricane watch (pink), tropical storm warning (blue) and tropical storm watch (yellow)
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.
Locals cleared out supermarket shelves as they stocked up supplies and prepared to batten down the hatches.
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.
Palm trees sway as the wind and rain from Hurricane Beryl pass through on July 03, 2024
Wrecked properties on Grenada after Hurricane Beryl ploughed through this week
A view shows damaged property following the passing of Hurricane Beryl, in Carriacou
A person makes their way through the wind and rain from Hurricane Beryl in Kingston, Jamaica
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.
MEXICO: People lounge on the beach as the sun sets ahead of Hurricane Beryl’s expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen July 3, 2024
Furniture store employees board up windows for protection ahead of Hurricane Beryl’s expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Furniture store employees board up windows for protection ahead of Hurricane Beryl’s expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Tourists swim in the ocean ahead of Hurricane Beryl’s expected arrival in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
This image provided by NASA shows Hurricane Beryl from the International Space Station on Sunday, July 1, 2024
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.
Evacuees from Union Island arrive in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The island, in the Grenadines archipelago, was hit by Hurricane Beryl. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)
Members of the Red Cross transport a Union Island evacuee on a stretcher as she arrives in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The island, in the Grenadines archipelago, was hit by Hurricane Beryl. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)
Evacuees from Union Island arrive in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Members of the Red Cross transport a Union Island evacuee on a stretcher as she arrives in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The island, in the Grenadines archipelago, was hit by Hurricane Beryl
Workers remove an advertisement from a billboard for protection ahead of Hurricane Beryl’s expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Tourists lounge on the beach ahead of Hurricane Beryl’s expected arrival in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024
A Mexican soldier stands guard on a beach ahead of Hurricane Beryl’s expected arrival, in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024
One fatality in Grenada occurred after a tree fell on a house, Kerryne James, the environment minister, said.
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.’
