Concerns are growing in Texas, where the National Hurricane Center predicts the storm will strike sometime between Sunday night and Monday, by which time Beryl will have regained hurricane status and strengthened enough to make landfall.
“Heavy rainfall is increasing the risk of hurricane-force winds, life-threatening storm surge and flooding along parts of northeastern Mexico and the south-central Texas coast late Sunday night into Monday,” the hurricane center said in a statement on Friday.
Computer model simulations run on Friday showed that the area around Corpus Christi was a particular area of concern, although Beryl’s projected path could shift to the north or south. Additionally, hurricane impacts could occur hundreds of miles away from where the storm’s center strikes.
Beryl slammed into Mexico’s coast just north of the beach resort of Tulum at about 6 a.m., downing palm trees with 100-mile-per-hour winds and pelting the area with rain. Widespread power outages were reported but no casualties were reported, national civil defense coordinator Laura Velazquez said.
She told reporters at President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s morning press conference that roughly half of Tulum and half of the territory of Isla Mujeres, another tourist hotspot, had lost power. Several neighborhoods on the island of Cozumel also lost power.
Velazquez said strong winds toppled trees and power poles but caused no deaths or serious injuries, and authorities rescued several people from flooded homes.
About 300 flights were canceled at Cancun’s international airport, and Tulum’s airport is not scheduled to reopen until Sunday.
Authorities urged residents and tourists to stay indoors as power lines and trees were down.
Governor Mara Lezama, citing a hotel association report, said the hurricane did not cause significant erosion of the area’s famous white-sand beaches. And while the hurricane did not appear to cause much damage to five-star hotels, it did batter the shoddy homes of poor coastal residents. On TikTok, people described how strong winds ripped shingles off roofs of modest homes.
“The winds got really strong last night and our electricity went out,” said a man who gave his name as John in Playa del Carmen, south of Cancun. “At dawn, shingles blew off the roof of our neighbor’s house right in front of us. [car] The alarms won’t stop.”
Leslie Diaz posted a video to TikTok from Playa del Carmen shortly before the hurricane hit, showing her dog so terrified she hid under the blankets on her bed.
“It’s almost 5 a.m. and there’s this terrible rumbling,” she said as the wind whistled behind her. “It hasn’t even hit land yet, but it’s already very strong.”
The region is used to hurricanes — in 2005, Hurricane Wilma killed eight people and caused billions of dollars in damage — so Mexican authorities took extra precautions this time, deploying some 10,000 army, navy and National Guard troops to help victims and patrol slushy roads.
As the hurricane is on a path to impact the western Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center plans to issue tropical storm, storm surge and hurricane watches for parts of Texas and northeastern Mexico.
As of 2:00 PM Eastern Time, Beryl’s center was located in the northwest Yucatan Peninsula, about 650 miles east-southeast of Brownsville, Texas, and was moving west-northwest at 15 mph. Maximum sustained winds had weakened to 70 mph, and Beryl had become a tropical storm. It will continue to weaken before it moves back out to sea.
The hurricane center expects Beryl to at least gradually strengthen over the weekend as it moves west-northwest across the Gulf of Mexico, where water temperatures will reach the mid-80s Fahrenheit.
Model simulations vary in how quickly beryl re-strengthens.
Hurricane-specific models generally do not predict rapid intensification, but larger-scale models in the US, Europe and elsewhere predict what the National Hurricane Center described as “significant intensification as Beryl approaches the coastline.” Unusually warm waters and favorable wind patterns at high altitudes could encourage rapid intensification.
But if the storm’s center is too strong, it could prevent Beryl from reintensifying. After crossing the Yucatan Peninsula, they are in disarray and are unable to rebuild.
Another uncertainty is where exactly Beryl will make landfall: Models predict that it will follow a path parallel to the coastlines of Tamaulipas, Mexico, and Texas as it approaches, meaning even small perturbations in its path could dramatically affect where it ultimately makes landfall.
A big factor in the path forecast is a weakening jet stream over the central United States, which will try to pull Beryl northward, but it’s not yet clear when or where that pull will occur. If Beryl strengthens, it will likely be pulled north toward the south and central Texas coasts, but if it weakens, it will be more likely to strike northeastern Mexico.
For residents in northern Mexico and along the south and central coasts of Texas, now is a good time to start preparing for the hurricane’s impacts. Landfall will likely occur as a Category 1 or 2 storm, but if Beryl strengthens sooner than expected, it could become a major Category 3 hurricane. “Those concerned in these areas should closely monitor forecast updates,” the hurricane center wrote.
The National Weather Service in Brownsville, Texas, is predicting at least 4 to 6 inches of rain, and up to 10 inches, in the area.
“Rainfall is not the only hazard associated with Beryl,” the weather service wrote. “The risk of rip currents is high.”[s]”Beryl could also bring damaging coastal and destructive wave activity, including storm surges, coastal flooding, high waves, and tropical storm-force winds. Beryl may also bring weak, short-lived tornadoes to the region.”
The National Weather Service in Corpus Christi, Texas, also warned of coastal flooding, the risk of rip currents and the possibility of heavy rain, and urged residents to begin preparing.
Beryl became the first hurricane of the 2024 season and the fastest-forming Category 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic on Monday night. Fueled by record-warm waters, the storm surprised meteorologists by breaking standards for strength and the speed at which it intensified so early in the season.
The storm battered Grenada, St. Vincent and other Caribbean islands on Monday, leaving widespread damage. At least five people were killed in the hurricane, particularly on the Grenadian islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, while three more deaths were reported in Venezuela.
Alison Caton, 50, owner of Paradise Beach Club, a restaurant and bar on Paradise Beach, said the hurricane had caused “devastation everywhere” on Carriacou island, home to about 7,000 people, many of whom are now living in makeshift shelters inside a school.
The storm battered Jamaica’s south coast on Wednesday, bringing flooding rains and wind gusts of more than 80 mph, destroying homes and downing trees and power lines. At least two deaths were reported, and about 65 percent of Jamaica Public Service Corporation customers, some 400,000 homes, were without power as of Thursday, the BBC reported.
The storm brought strong winds and heavy rain to the Cayman Islands on Wednesday night before hurtling toward the Yucatan Peninsula.
Gabriela Martinez, Jason Samenow, Amanda Coletta, Kim Bellware, Samantha Schmidt and Anumita Kaur contributed to this report.
