TULUM, Mexico (AP) — After leaving devastation across the eastern Caribbean and killing at least nine people, Hurricane Beryl strengthened again to a Category 3 late Thursday as it headed out to sea toward Mexico’s resort-dotted Yucatan Peninsula.
The National Hurricane Center said Beryl The first Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic OceanThe storm is now reporting sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph) after weakening early Thursday.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in a statement that Beryl was smaller than Cancun but could still hit Tulum, which is home to thousands of tourists and residents.
“People are encouraged to seek refuge elsewhere, such as higher ground, shelters or the homes of friends or family,” Lopez Obrador wrote. “Do not hesitate to recover your material possessions.”
“As the hurricane moves away from the Cayman Islands, the greatest immediate threat right now is landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula,” said Jack Beven, a senior hurricane expert at the U.S. Hurricane Center.
The storm’s center is about 135 miles (220 kilometers) east-southeast of Tulum, Mexico, and is moving west-northwest at 16 miles (26 kph), according to the hurricane center.
Beryl was expected to bring heavy rain and winds to Mexico’s Caribbean coast before crossing the Yucatan Peninsula and reintensifying in the Gulf of Mexico before making a second strike on northeastern Mexico.
As strong winds began to blow across Tulum’s white sandy beach on Thursday afternoon, quad bikes carrying megaphones drove along the beach, urging people to evacuate. Tourists took photos of the rising waves, while military officials urged people to take shelter as Beryl was expected to make landfall near Tulum early Friday.
Over the past few days, Beryl has damaged or destroyed 95 percent of homes on the twin islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, wreaked havoc on fishing boats in Barbados and ripped roofs off Jamaica before passing through the Cayman Islands early on Thursday.
Mexico’s popular Caribbean coast is preparing shelters, evacuating small coastal communities, and even Sea turtle eggs off the coast at risk from storm surge.
In Playa del Carmen, most stores were closed Thursday, some with boarded up windows, while tourists jogged and locals walked their dogs under sunny skies. In Tulum, authorities imposed closures and evacuated beachfront hotels.
Francisco Bencomo, general manager of Hotel Umi in Tulum, said all guests had been evacuated. “In a situation like this, we would be in total lockdown,” he said, adding that the hotel had no plans to let guests back before July 10.
“We’ve turned off the gas and electricity. We also have an emergency floor and two maintenance guys are on standby there,” a hotel representative said. “They’re in the rooms furthest from the beach and the windows.”
“We hope that the impact on the hotel will be minimal and that the hurricane will move through Tulum quickly and not cause any major damage,” he said.
Tourists were also taking precautions. “I woke up this morning and filled up all my empty bottles with tap water and put them in the freezer so I’d have water to flush the toilet,” said Lara Marsters, 54, a therapist visiting Tulum from Boise, Idaho.
“Power outages are expected,” Marsters said, “and we’re going to hunker down and stay safe.”
“I figured I’d see the last of the sun today and then just stay inside until hopefully the storm passes,” Miriam Setola, a 34-year-old tourist from Dallas, Texas, said as she ate a sandwich on the beach early Thursday.
But when Beryl reappears in the Gulf of Mexico the next day, forecasters say it could again gain hurricane strength and hit Matamoros, near the Mexico-U.S. border, an area already inundated by Tropical Storm Alberto in June.
Velazquez said temporary storm shelters had been set up in schools and hotels, but evacuation efforts from some vulnerable villages, including Punta Allen, on a narrow sandbar south of Tulum, and Mahahual further south, had been only partially successful.
The worst of Beryl’s damage appears to have passed, as its central wall grazed Jamaica’s south coast on Wednesday afternoon and roads in Kingston were blocked by utility poles and trees by Thursday morning.
Authorities confirmed that a young man died Wednesday after being swept down a storm drain while trying to retrieve a ball, and a woman was also killed when her home collapsed.
Residents began removing the rubble after the rain stopped.
Sixty percent of the island remains without power, water is scarce and communications are limited. Government authorities are assessing the damage but the lack of communication has made it extremely difficult, especially in the southern parishes that were hit the hardest.
Some 1,432 people remain in evacuation centres in Jamaica, where Deslyn Campbell, a resident of low-lying areas of Old Harbour Bay, lamented: “My house is going to flood!”
“This time we’ve lost everything,” said a sad Carlton Goulding nearby, whose home was completely destroyed in the hurricane, his second time suffering storm damage.
In south-central Clarendon Parish, residents worked to repair damaged roofs and clear fallen trees, as many roads in the area remained partially closed due to downed utility and communication poles.
Cayman Islands Prime Minister Juliana O’Connor on Thursday thanked residents and tourists who followed storm regulations and helped maintain “collective calm” ahead of Beryl’s approach.
Michelle Forbes, St. Vincent and the Grenadines director for the National Emergency Management Organization, said about 95 percent of homes on Mayreau and Union Island were damaged by Hurricane Beryl.
Three people were reported dead in Grenada and Carriacou and one in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, according to authorities, while three more were killed and four are missing in northern Venezuela.
One person was killed in Grenada when a tree fell on a house, Environment Minister Kerryn James told The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, the US National Hurricane Center said Thursday that Tropical Storm Aletta had formed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico. It was located about 190 miles (310 kilometers) from Manzanillo and had maximum sustained winds of 40 miles (65 kilometers) a day. It was forecast to move away from land and dissipate by the weekend.
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Myers reported from Kingston, Jamaica. Lenroy Trail in Kingston, Jamaica, Mark Stevenson, Maria Bertha, Mariana Martinez Barba in Mexico City, Coral Murphy Marcos in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Lucanus Ollivierre in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines contributed to this report.
