Hurricane Beryl, which ravaged Jamaica and the Caribbean earlier this week, leaving 11 people dead, made landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday morning, as South Texas and the Gulf Coast braced for the storm to make landfall this weekend.
Beryl had weakened to a Category 1 storm as of late Friday morning, according to Mexico’s National Weather Service. The storm continues to weaken as it moves inland into the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula, but may slowly strengthen again as it passes over the Gulf of Mexico, the national weather service said.
A hurricane warning was issued Friday morning for the coastline of the Yucatan Peninsula stretching from Cancun to Puerto Allen and the island of Cozumel, according to the National Hurricane Center, and a hurricane watch was also in effect for the coast between Cancun and Cabo Catoche on the northern tip of the peninsula.
By 10 a.m. local time, the storm had reached an area 15 miles northwest of the popular tourist destination of Tulum and about 680 miles from Brownsville, Texas, according to the center. The storm was moving with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph as it moved inland through Mexico.
The center said Mexico’s major tourist destinations were expected to experience “life-threatening” conditions, including hurricane-force winds, dangerous storm surges and heavy rains, as the storm makes landfall. Residents in the area have been advised to evacuate.
The storm could dump up to 10 inches of rain on parts of the Yucatan Peninsula, increasing the risk of flash flooding, according to the hurricane center.
The center said Beryl could also cause strong rip currents on beaches along the entire Gulf Coast.
more:Hurricane Beryl Tracking System: See the projected path and spaghetti model of the storm as it makes landfall in Mexico
Hurricane Beryl expected to move through South Texas
Forecasters have warned that the storm will likely move through South Texas this weekend.
“Today and Saturday will be the calm before the storm,” the National Weather Service in Corpus Christi said in an alert Friday.
The storm’s impact is expected to intensify Friday night, increasing the risk of rip currents, the center said. By Saturday, minor coastal flooding may occur as rains begin to fall ahead of the storm.
Forecasters said residents in the area should have “preparedness plans.”
Several major metropolitan areas in Texas, including Houston, Austin and San Antonio, are in the storm’s widespread path, according to a Friday morning warning from the National Weather Service.
The National Weather Service in Houston warned that locally heavy rains would be the “major severe weather threat” as Tropical Storm Beryl makes landfall near the South Texas coast late Sunday night or early Monday and moves generally northwestward through Wednesday.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday directed the state’s Emergency Management Agency to step up preparations for the storm.
“As Texans and visitors to the South Coast begin their Independence Day celebrations, I urge them to ensure the safety of themselves and their loved ones by having emergency plans, knowing their hurricane evacuation routes and continuing to monitor weather conditions,” he wrote in a news release.
National Weather Service meteorologist Mac Morris told the Austin American-Statesman, part of the USA Today Network, on Thursday that forecasters were unsure if the storm would reach Austin, but he said the storm could weaken to a Category 1 by the time it reaches Texas.
Beryl could weaken to a tropical storm late Friday or Saturday before reinstating as a hurricane, according to AccuWeather. Meteorologists predict it could make landfall again late Sunday or early Monday near the Texas-Mexico border.
National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan warned Texans to keep monitoring forecasts over the holiday weekend, saying if Beryl impacts the western Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm, “it could develop during daytime hours Saturday.”
more:Sheryl Lee Ralph evacuates to Jamaica ahead of Hurricane Beryl: ‘Stay inside’
Some flights canceled in Cancun as Hurricane Beryl approaches
More than 1,170 temporary shelters were set up across the Yucatan Peninsula in preparation for the storm, according to a news release from the state government Thursday. Tulum International Airport was closed Thursday and will remain closed through Sunday. Cancun airport remained open, but many flights were canceled.
Beryl strengthened earlier this week to become the earliest Category 5 storm on record, causing widespread devastation as it moved through the Caribbean.
The storm battered Grand Cayman, the largest of the Cayman Islands, on Thursday after making landfall in Jamaica a day earlier as a Category 4 hurricane, causing power outages, destroying buildings and forcing hundreds of people to seek shelter in emergency centres by Wednesday evening.
Officials on Thursday updated the death toll from the storm to 11, but said news of more fatalities was likely once communications were restored.
clock:Record-breaking Hurricane Beryl heading west towards Jamaica
Task force deployed as U.S. embassy closed
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico closed on Friday in response to the hurricane and is scheduled to reopen on Monday.
The Mexican government has established a “precaution zone” along parts of the Yucatan Peninsula coastline where hurricane warnings have been issued, and dozens of rivers and dams throughout the affected region are being monitored by authorities, according to a press release on Wednesday.
A task force of 8,535 responders and 727 vehicles will also be deployed, Tania Patricia Ramirez Gutierrez, director of Mexico’s National Communications Center, said in a news release.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador urged people in X to seek higher ground.
“Don’t hesitate to take back your material things,” he wrote. “What matters most is your life.”
Jamaica, Caribbean Islands assess damage and deaths from Hurricane Beryl
Hurricane Beryl reached Mexico after leaving widespread destruction on its path through the Caribbean.
The storm killed at least 11 people in Jamaica, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and northern Venezuela.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday that he confirmed two people had been killed in the hurricane. One body has not been recovered, Holness said.
“We have reports that the person has been swept out to sea, but we are still investigating whether we can recover the body,” he said.
Jamaica Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management Authority deputy director Richard Thompson said one person was killed after being hit by a falling tree in Hanover Parish.
Holness said authorities were working to assess the damage on the island. “We are now moving from the preparation phase to the recovery phase,” he said.
The Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday that more than 90 percent of homes and buildings on three Grenadine islands were destroyed when the hurricane struck earlier this week. Agency director Elizabeth Reilly said St. Vincent and the Grenadines was “hardest hit by Hurricane Beryl.”
St. Vincent and the Grenadines could be on the brink of food shortages after the storm destroyed half the island’s plantain and banana crops, said Nerissa Gittens MacMillan, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture.
Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell described the level of destruction on the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique as “almost Armageddon-like.”
“There’s really nothing that can prepare you for seeing this level of destruction,” he said.
Article contributed by Reuters
