Flooding and tornadoes: Associated news reports from the Jamaican girl Desrine Campbell recounted “My house is almost flooded!”
Desrine Campbell is a resident of the low lying community of Old Harbour Bay, and as she wailed, “My house is almost flooded!” as she remained in a shelter in Jamaica, it was obvious she was not the only one.
The storm tore roofs off homes, sent trees into roadways and left some 60% of the island without electricity, the Associated Press reports. The number of people in shelters was over a thousand as of Thursday.
A young man died on Wednesday after he was swept into a storm water drain to retrieve a ball. A woman died after a house fell on her.
The worst damage appeared to have been behind it. The eye wall was brushed by Jamaica’s southern coast on Wednesday afternoon while trees and telephone poles were blocking the roads in Kingston on Thursday.
Velázquez said temporary storm shelters were in place at schools and hotels but efforts to evacuate a few highly exposed villages — like Punta Allen, which sits on a narrow spit of land south of Tulum — and Mahahual, further south — had been only partially successful.
There was a landfall east of Tulum, Mexico on Friday with maximum sustained winds of over 100 mph. They dropped to 100 mph shortly after.
Dallas-Douglas Surfer and Emergency Responder Beryl Setra, 44, in Tulum, Mexico, before a Fourth-Lasinio Hurricane Beamfall
Myriam Setra, a 34-year-old tourist from Dallas, Texas was having a sandwich on the beach earlier Thursday, saying “figured we’d get the last of the sun in today, too. And then it’s just going to be hunker down and just stay indoors until hopefully it passes.”
Tourists also took precautions. Lara Marsters, 54, a therapist visiting Tulum from Boise, Idaho, said “this morning we woke up and just filled all of our empty water bottles with water from the tap and put it in the freezer … so we will have water to flush the toilet.”
“We’ve cut the gas and electricity. We also have an emergency floor where two maintenance employees will be locking down,” he said from the hotel. They are staying in the farthest away room from the beach and windows.
The general manager of Hotel Umi in Tulum said all of the guests had left. He said they would be completely locked down and no guests would be allowed before July 10th.
In Playa del Carmen, most businesses were closed Thursday and some were boarding up windows as tourists jogged by and some locals walked their dogs under sunny skies. In Tulum, authorities shut things down and evacuated beachside hotels.
The Mexican government issued a “red alert” ahead of Beryl’s arrival, calling on people to stay either in their homes or at storm shelters. After hearing the noise of sea turtle eggs, it took action to remove them from the beaches.
As the wind began gusting over Tulum’s white sand beaches on Thursday afternoon, four-wheelers with megaphones rolled along the sand telling people to leave. Tourists snapped photos of the growing surf, but military personnel urged them to leave as Beryl headed to an expected landfall around Tulum early Friday.
The center of the storm was east-southwest of Tulum, Mexico, and moving west- northwest at 16 mph.
Jack Beven, senior hurricane specialist at the U.S. Hurricane Center, said “the biggest immediate threat now that the storm is moving away from the Cayman Islands is landfall in the Yucatan Peninsula.”
The First Hurricane in the Atlantic, Destroyed by a Category 5 Hurricane: President Lopez Obrador and Prime Minister Juliana O’Connor
“No hesitating. Material things can be recovered. The most important thing to President Lopez Obrador is life.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued a statement saying Beryl may make a direct hit on Tulum, which, while smaller than Cancun, still holds thousands of tourists and residents.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Beryl, which was the earliest Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, now had winds of 115 mph (185 kph ) after weakening earlier Thursday.
Nearby, Carlton Golding said ruefully, “I lost everything this time.” Golding’s house was totally destroyed by the hurricane, the second time that he has suffered damage from storms.
Residents of Clarendon attempted to repair damaged roofs and clear downed trees. The roads in the area were partially blocked from downed electricity and telecommunication poles.
The premier of the Cayman Islands, Juliana O’Connor, thanked residents and visitors Thursday for contributing to the “collective calm” ahead of Beryl by following storm protocols.
Approximately 85% of Mayreau and Union Island’s homes have been damaged by Hurricane Beryl, according to the National Emergency Management Organization.
The destruction of Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Petite Martinique, Venezuela, declared by Prime Minister A.M. Mitchell
There were at least four people killed in the Grenadines and Carriacou. Three other deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where four people were missing, officials said.
The Hurricane Center said on Thursday that Tropical Storm Aletta had formed off Mexico’s coast. Aletta was forecast to head away from land by the weekend, and had a maximum wind speed of 40 mph.
The United Nations is making $4 million in emergency relief funds available to Grenada, Jamaica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Humanitarian aid groups are going to help residents of the Caribbean.
“Union is a wasteland of destruction,” the Prime Minister said in the video. “It’s only the odd building that is not severely damaged or destroyed.”
In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Union Island — some 3 miles long and 1 mile wide, and home to about 3,000 residents — saw about 98% of its buildings damaged or destroyed, including its hospital and airport control tower.
The mangroves on Carriacou are completely destroyed and the boats and marinas are damaged, according to him. “There is almost complete destruction of the electrical grid system in Carriacou. The entire communication system is completely destroyed.”
Prime Minister Mitchell said in a news conference that the destruction of the buildings and agriculture on Carriacou and Petite Martinique was almost Armageddon-like.
“Hurricane Beryl makes landfall in Mexico, with its sights set on Texas next,” Gov. Greg Abbott told NPR
It battered the coast of Barbados, destroying or damaging some 200 fishing vessels, before continuing on to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada as a Category 4 storm on its way to Jamaica and Mexico.
“As Texans and visitors around the south coastal areas start to celebrate our nation’s Independence Day, I want them to make an emergency plan, review the Hurricane evacuation routes, and continue to watch weather conditions to ensure the safety of themselves and their loved ones,” Abbott said.
Gov. Greg Abbott directed the state’s Division of Emergency Management to increase the level of readiness of the emergency operation center on Friday. Cameron County issued a voluntary evacuation notice to people with recreational vehicles in certain county parks, and officials in Hidalgo County, Brownsville and Corpus Christi scheduled precautionary sandbag distribution events this weekend.
Texas Public Radio reports that state and local officials are beginning to take precautionary measures, even as the center of the storm remains hundreds of miles away.
He said that it would take days to get parts of the country back on their feet. “The big cities will probably get power — Montego Bay and Kingston — first. But in the rural communities, it’s going to take a while.”
Journalist Nick Davis told NPR’s All Things Considered from Kingston on Thursday that authorities’ immediate concern is getting power to essential services, like water and telecommunications.
The National Highway Service forecasts heavy rain on the Northern Yucatan peninsula during a storm on Decay of Cancun (Mexico)
A popular vacation destination is the city of Cancun, located on the Mexican coast. According to the AP, some 3000 tourists were removed from the island and at least 100 flights out of the international airport in Cancun were canceled that day.
The NHC is forecasting dangerous hurricane-force winds, a storm surge of four to six feet and damaging waves as the storm moves inland across the northern Yucatan Peninsula during the day. The region could see 4 to 6 inches of rain, and up to 10 inches in some areas.