Hurricane Beryl is shown approaching the Caribbean Island nation of Jamaica in a satellite image taken at 5:51 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. The country’s prime minister has declared a state of emergency as the Category 4 hurricane brushes its southern coast. Image courtesy NOAA
The eye wall of Hurricane Beryl was “brushing” the south coast of Jamaica Wednesday afternoon as it remained on course for Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula while packing maximum sustained winds of 140 mph.
As of 5 p.m. CDT, Beryl’s eye was located in the Caribbean Sea 65 miles west-southwest of Kingston, Jamaica, and 265 miles east-southeast of Grand Cayman Island, which appeared to be next landmass along the Category 4 hurricane’s path. Advertisement
“The hurricane is expected to approach the Cayman Islands tonight into Thursday and the Yucatan Peninsula Thursday night,” the National Hurricane Center said in its latest update.
Hurricane warnings were in effect for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, as well as the Yucatan Coast from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancun.
Hurricane watches were also in effect for the Yucatan Coast south of Puerto Costa Maya to Chetumal, as well as north of Cancun to Cabo Catoche. Advertisement
Forecasters warned Jamaica and the Cayman Islands to expect “life-threatening winds and storm surge” on Wednesday. They were expecting Beryl to produce rainfall amounts of 4 to 8 inches, with isolated totals of 12 inches, across Jamaica and the southwestern Haitian Peninsula through late Wednesday.
“Jamaica must take this hurricane seriously,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said in a televised address on Tuesday, declaring the whole of Jamaica to be a disaster area and imposing a day-long curfew on Wednesday.
He also issued evacuation orders for low-lying areas while vowing the country was in a state of readiness for Beryl’s impact. Holness announced the government had allocated $5 million for each of Jamaica’s constituencies to pay for food and building supplies and that 80% percent of its emergency shelters have been activated.
On Tuesday night local time, Mexico’s government had issued a hurricane watch for the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula from Chetumal to Cabo Catch while one of Mexico’s neighbors, Belize, had also issued a similar tropical storm watch Tuesday night for south of Chetumal to Belize city.
Watches were already called for the south coast of Haiti and the Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque westward to the border with Haiti and the south coast of Haiti from the border with the Dominican Republic to Anse d’Hainault. Advertisement
Beryl made landfall on Grenada’s Carriacou Island in the Caribbean Sea with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph around 11 a.m. Tuesday. It is the strongest known hurricane to pass through the Grenadines, according to data from NOAA since 1851.
On Sunday, Beryl became the earliest Category 4 hurricane on record in the Atlantic and the only Category 4 storm ever recorded in June.
It then later became the earliest Category 5 storm in history before being downgraded to a Category 4 storm on Tuesday.
Only seven named storms have formed over the last 173 years in this sector of the Atlantic before July 4, according to Accuweather.
Meanwhile, Alberto, the first tropical storm of the season, made landfall over Mexico on June 20 and then pummeled Texas the next day with rain while Tropical Storm Chris, the third named storm of the season, made landfall in eastern Mexico late Sunday.
