Hurricane Beryl, a major Category 3 storm, nears Cayman Islands after lashing Jamaica
Hurricane Beryl approached the Cayman Islands overnight as a major Category 3 storm after roaring past Jamaica Wednesday, where it brought fierce winds and heavy rain. Earlier, as a powerful Category 4 storm, Beryl killed at least seven people and caused significant damage in the southeast Caribbean.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said early Thursday that Cayman Island conditions were "deteriorating" and strong winds, dangerous storm surge and damaging waves were expected there later in the morning.
Despite being forecast to weaken slightly over the next day or two, the "extremely dangerous" Beryl was still at major hurricane strength when it passed Jamaica, the center said. Wind-whipped rain pounded the island for hours as residents heeded authorities' call to shelter until the storm had passed. Power was knocked out in much of the capital of Kingston.
As of 5 a.m. Thursday, Beryl's center was some 55 miles south-southeast of Grand Cayman island with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, the hurricane center said. It was moving west-northwest at 20 mph with hurricane-force winds extending about 45 miles from the storm's center.
Beryl was forecast to pass just south of the Cayman Islands overnight at or near major hurricane strength and still be a hurricane when it reaches Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula late Thursday or early Friday, according to the hurricane center.
Major hurricane strength is defined as a Category 3 hurricane or higher, which means maximum sustained winds of at least 111 mph, while a hurricane has maximum winds of at least 74 mph.
Jamaica's hurricane warning was ended Thursday but a warning was is in effect for the Cayman Islands and coastal Mexican Yucatan from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancun, including Cozumel. A Hurricane watch was posted for coastal Mexican Yucatan south of Puerto Costa Maya to Chetumal and north of Cancun to Cabo Catoche.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Wednesday evening that Jamaica his island nation hadn't 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 the country'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.
Before Beryl's arrival in Kingston, people had earlier boarded up windows, fishermen pulled their boats out of the water and workers dismantled roadside advertising boards to protect them from the lashing winds.
Kingston resident Pauline Lynch said that she had stockpiled food and water in anticipation of the storm's arrival. With wind already driving rain, Lynch said, "I have no control over what is coming so I just have to pray that all people of Jamaica is safe and we don't suffer no deaths, no loss."
By midday, winds already howled in the capital, turning the sea into churning whitecaps as Beryl's eye scraped by the island's southern coast.
"We are very concerned about a wide variety of life threatening impacts in Jamaica," including storm surge, high winds and flash flooding, said Jon Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather.
Porter called Beryl "the strongest and most dangerous hurricane threat that Jamaica has faced, probably, in decades."
Jamaica was under a state of emergency and the island was declared a disaster zone hours before Beryl's impact. Holness said the disaster zone declaration would remain for a week.
Beryl made landfall on the island of Carriacou in Grenada on Monday as a Category 4 — the earliest storm of that strength on record in the Atlantic — then late in the day its winds increased to Category 5 strength, meaning it had winds of 157 mph or higher.
Mexico prepares for Beryl's arrival
Mexico's Caribbean coast, meanwhile was getting ready for Beryl.
Its 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.
The head of Mexico's civil defense agency said Beryl is expected to make a rare double strike on Mexico. Laura Velázquez said the hurricane is expected to make landfall along a relatively unpopulated stretch of the Caribbean coast between Tulum and the inland town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Because the coast there is largely made up of lagoons and mangroves, there are few resorts or hotels in the area south of Tulum.
On Wednesday, Mexican government officials moved sea turtle eggs off Cancun beaches in an attempt to protect them from storm surge.
The hurricane is expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it crosses the Yucatan peninsula and reemerge over the weekend at storm strength into the Gulf of Mexico. Velázquez said that Beryl is then expected to hit Mexican territory a second time in the Gulf coast states of Veracruz or Tamaulipas, near the Texas border.
Will Hurricane Beryl hit Texas?
CBS affiliate KHOU-TV reported that whether Beryl crashes into Texas depends on how much strength it loses as it goes over land, as well as conditions in the Gulf of Mexico in the coming days. One key factor will be how wind shear affects Beryl.
"The flow of the wind pattern as it enters the Gulf is going to be more hostile," KHOU-TV meteorologist Kim Castro said. "The atmospheric conditions are going to start ripping it apart."
Another factor will be an area of high pressure in Texas that has been acting as a barrier but is forecast to move east later this week.
"Depending on where Beryl is situated, it could track towards Tampico (Mexico), the area where these tropical storms have tracked so far this season," Castro said. "…However, if this tracks a little further to the north, there would be nothing to kind of nudge it south, so there is a little exposure to the Texas coastline."
The hurricane center urged people in southern Texas to monitor Beryl's progress.
Beryl leaves trail of damage, destruction
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 five people are missing, officials said. About 25,000 people in that area also were affected by heavy rainfall from Beryl.
One fatality in Grenada occurred after a tree fell on a house, Kerryne James, minister of climate resilience, environment and renewable energy, told The Associated Press.
She said the nearby islands of Carriacou and Petit Martinique sustained the greatest damage, with water, food and baby formula a priority. Beryl flattened scores of homes and businesses in Carriacou.
"The situation is grim," Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told a news conference Tuesday. "There is no power, and there is almost complete destruction of homes and buildings on the island. The roads are not passable, and in many instances they are cut off because of the large quantity of debris strewn all over the streets."
Mitchell added: "The possibility that there may be more fatalities remains a grim reality as movement is still highly restricted."
Streets from St. Lucia island south to Grenada were strewn with shoes, trees, downed power lines and other debris. Banana trees were snapped in half and cows lay dead in green pastures with homes made of tin and plywood tilting precariously nearby.
Meanwhile, Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, promised to rebuild the archipelago in a statement early Tuesday. He noted that 90% of homes on Union Island were destroyed, and that "similar levels of devastation" were expected on the islands of Myreau and Canouan.
"Hurricane Beryl has left in its wake immense destruction," Gonsalves said.
Several people evacuated Union Island via ferry and arrived at the Kingstown Ferry Terminal in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on Tuesday.
Sharon DeRoche, one of the evacuees, said Union Island is in a terrible state. She bore the hurricane in her bathroom before she fled. "It was a hard four hours battling with six of us in that little area," she said.
In Barbados, Wilfred Abrahams, minister of home affairs and information, said drones — which are faster than crews fanning across the island — would assess damage once Beryl passed.
Historic hurricane
Beryl was the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin, and was only the second Category 5 storm recorded in July since 2005, according to the hurricane center.
It took Beryl only 42 hours to strengthen from a tropical depression to a major hurricane, which is a Category 3 storm or higher — a feat accomplished only six other times in Atlantic hurricane history, and with Sept. 1 as the earliest date, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.
Beryl was also the third Category 3 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic in June, following Audrey in 1957 and Alma in 1966, hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry said.
"Beryl is an extremely dangerous and rare hurricane for this time of year in this area," he told the AP in a phone interview earlier this week. "Unusual is an understatement," he said, calling Beryl historic.
Hurricane Ivan in 2004 was the last strongest hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean, causing catastrophic damage in Grenada as a Category 3 storm.
"So this is a serious threat, a very serious threat," Lowry said of Beryl.
Beryl is the second named storm in what is predicted to be a busy hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. Last week, Tropical Storm Alberto brought torrential flooding to portions of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. It was responsible for at least four deaths in the Mexican states of Nuevo Leon and Veracruz.
According to CBS News weather producer David Parkinson, Beryl is the farthest east a hurricane has formed in June, and one of only two to do so east of the Caribbean, with the other instance occurring in 1933. Parkinson expects Beryl to remain south of Jamaica, and forecasts that any U.S. impacts are still at least eight days away.
Warm waters are fueling Beryl, with ocean heat content in the deep Atlantic the highest on record for this time of year, according to Brian McNoldy, University of Miami tropical meteorology researcher.