By Jose Cortes and Paola Chiomante
TULUM/CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) -Hurricane Beryl strengthened to a Category 3 storm on Thursday evening as it zeroed in on Mexico’s top tourist resorts after leaving behind a deadly trail of destruction across several Caribbean islands over the past few days.
Beryl, packing maximum winds of 115 mph (185 kph), was on a path to strike the Yucatan peninsula’s eastern coast early Friday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC), which warned of a dangerous storm surge and damaging waves overnight.
The storm churned past the Cayman Islands earlier on Thursday after belting Jamaica with winds that tore apart buildings and uprooted trees.
Authorities say at least 11 people have so far died from the storm across Jamaica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and in northern Venezuela. The toll could rise as communications are restored on islands devastated by flooding and powerful winds.
At the international airport at Mexico’s top tourist destination Cancun, at least 100 flights were canceled on Thursday as tourists scrambled to catch the last ones out.
Stragglers perused the beach in Cancun on Thursday evening as winds began picking up. In nearby Playa del Carmen, police blocked off beach entrances with yellow caution tape to dissuade visitors ahead of Beryl’s arrival.
The unusually fierce, early hurricane was located about 160 miles (256 km) east of the Mexican beach resort of Tulum, according to the NHC.
Earlier on Thursday, officials in the Cayman Islands issued the all clear after the storm spared them the worst.
“We had ever confidence that the Lord would hear our prayer, and I am absolutely delighted to say that he has delivered us,” Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly said on Thursday.
Beryl had weakened on Thursday after skirting Jamaica’s southern coast late on Wednesday as a powerful Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
“We’re happy to be alive, happy that the damage was not more extensive,” said Joseph Patterson, a bee keeper in the southwestern Jamaican town of Bogue. He described felled power lines, roads blocked with debris and “tremendous damage” to farms.
There were two deaths in Jamaica related to the storm, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said in an interview on CBC on Thursday.
Some 70% of the National Water Commission’s 400,000 customers were without water, a company representative said.
Still, most Jamaicans were “giving thanks,” Holness said, after having “escaped the worst”.
Beryl was forecast to dump 4-6 inches (10-15 centimeters) of rain on Mexico’s Yucatan through Friday, with as much as 10 inches in some places, the NHC said.
The hurricane center expects the storm to weaken rapidly as it crosses the Yucatan peninsula early Friday, but is seen getting stronger when Beryl moves over the Gulf of Mexico.
The storm is expected to move toward northeastern Mexico and southern Texas late in the weekend, the NHC said.
TOURISTS BEWARE
On Thursday, around 3,000 tourists were evacuated from island getaway Isla Mujeres back to the mainland near Cancun, the island’s tourism director Jose Magana said.
Workers in Cancun and Playa del Carmen could be seen filling sand bags and boarding up shop and hotel doors and windows.
Fisherman Jose Martin was one of several who docked his boat in Cancun ahead of Beryl’s arrival.
“It affects us a good deal because, first, we can’t work, and second, we need to find shelter, so it’s not good,” Martin said.
Schools in the state of Quintana Roo were closed Thursday and Friday. Mexico’s defense ministry opened around 120 storm shelters in the area, ahead of expected flooding.
Government workers in Cancun on Wednesday saved over 10,000 turtle eggs that were at risk of being swept away.
Residents in Tulum lined up at gas stations to fill their tanks and additional containers, while hotels and tourist complexes removed loose furniture and equipment.
Mexico’s major oil platforms, most of which are clustered around the southern Gulf of Mexico’s shallow waters, are not expected to be shut down or otherwise affected.
Offshore oil projects to the north, in U.S. territorial waters, could be hit, according to the hurricane’s expected trajectory.
Chevron Corp (NYSE:) said on Thursday that non-essential personnel from its Gulf of Mexico facilities, including workers at its Anchor platform, are being removed due to the approaching storm.
Beryl is the 2024 Atlantic season’s first hurricane and at its peak earlier this week was the earliest Category 5 storm on
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast a large number of major hurricanes in what it has predicted will be an “extraordinary” storm season this year. The season runs from the start of June to the end of November
Beryl’s destructive power, coming so early in the hurricane season, underscores the consequences of a warmer Atlantic Ocean. Scientists say human-caused climate change is fueling extreme weather.