Current:Home > StocksHurricane Beryl roars toward Mexico after killing at least 7 people in the southeast Caribbean -BeyondWealth Learning
Hurricane Beryl roars toward Mexico after killing at least 7 people in the southeast Caribbean
View
Date:2025-04-27 03:43:56
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.
Late Wednesday night, the storm’s center was about 560 miles (905 kilometers) east-southeast of Tulum, Mexico. It had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 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 waters of the 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 that 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.
MORE COVERAGEMichelle 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.
The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.
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.”
___
Associated Press journalists John Myers Jr. and Renloy Trail in Kingston, Jamaica, Mark Stevenson and María Verza in Mexico City, Coral Murphy Marcos in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Lucanus Ollivierre in Kingstown, St. Vincent and Grenadines contributed to this report.
veryGood! (4156)
Related
- Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
- An equipment outage holds up United flights, but the airline and FAA say they’re resuming
- Linda Evangelista Shares She Was Diagnosed With Breast Cancer Twice in 5 Years
- Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías arrested on felony charge of corporal injury on a spouse
- In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
- Breanna Stewart sets WNBA single-season scoring record, Liberty edge Wings
- Mother bear with 2 cubs is shot dead, sparking outrage in Italy
- Teenage rebellion? Dog sneaks into Metallica concert, delighting fans and the band
- Tom Holland's New Venture Revealed
- Beyoncé's Los Angeles Renaissance Tour stops bring out Gabrielle Union, Kelly Rowland, more celebs
Ranking
- In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
- Minnesota political reporter Gene Lahammer dies at 90
- Brian Kelly calls LSU a 'total failure' after loss to Florida State. No argument here
- Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner’s Second Daughter’s Initials Revealed
- What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
- 'Holly' review: Stephen King's ace detective takes a star role in freaky thriller
- Shohei Ohtani to have 'some type of procedure,' but agent says he'll remain two-way star
- University of Arkansas gets $2.5 million grant to study exercise and aging
Recommendation
Megan Fox's ex Brian Austin Green tells Machine Gun Kelly to 'grow up'
Biden to award Medal of Honor to Army helicopter pilot who rescued soldiers in a Vietnam firefight
Milwaukee suburb to begin pulling millions of gallons a day from Lake Michigan
Boy, 14, dies after leaping into Lake Michigan in Indiana despite being warned against doing so
Spooky or not? Some Choa Chu Kang residents say community garden resembles cemetery
University of Arkansas gets $2.5 million grant to study exercise and aging
Jorge Vilda out. Spain sacks coach amid furor over nonconsensual kiss at World Cup final
Why dominant win over LSU shows Florida State football is back