Hurricane Beryl was roaring by Jamaica on Wednesday, bringing fierce winds and heavy rain after the powerfulCategory 4 stormkilled at least seven people and caused significant damage in the southeast Caribbean.
Despite being forecast to weaken slightly over the next day or two, the "extremely dangerous" Beryl was still at major hurricane strength when it passed near Jamaica, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. Wind-whipped rain pounded the island for hours as residents heeded authorities' call to shelter until the storm had passed. Power was knocked out in much of the capital of Kingston.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness said on Wednesday afternoon that nearly 500 people were placed in shelters.
By evening, he said that Jamaica has not seen the "worst of what could possibly happen."
"We can do as much as we can do, as humanly possible, and we leave the rest in the hands of God," Holness said.
Several roadways in the country's interior settlements were impacted by fallen trees and utility poles, while some communities in the northern section were without electricity, according to the government's information service.
As of Wednesday evening, Beryl's center was just off the coast of southwest Jamaica and had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph, the hurricane center said. It was located 100 miles west of Kingston and 160 miles southeast of Grand Cayman. It was moving at 20 mph with hurricane-force winds extending about 45 miles from the storm's center.
It was forecast to pass just south of the Cayman Islands by late Wednesday night at or near major hurricane strength and reach Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula late Thursday or early Friday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
"Hurricane conditions are expected to reach the Cayman Islands late tonight, with tropical storm conditions expected to begin within the next couple of hours," the hurricane center said.
Major hurricane strength is defined as a Category 3 hurricane or higher, which means maximum sustained winds of at least 111 mph.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, as well as the Yucatan Peninsula from Puerto Costa Maya north to Cancun. A hurricane watch was in effect for other areas on the Yucatan's east coast.
Before Beryl's arrival in Kingston, people had earlier boarded up windows, fishermen pulled their boats out of the water and workers dismantled roadside advertising boards to protect them from the lashing winds.
Kingston resident Pauline Lynch said that she had stockpiled food and water in anticipation of the storm's arrival. With wind already driving rain, Lynch said, "I have no control over what is coming so I just have to pray that all people of Jamaica is safe and we don't suffer no deaths, no loss."
By midday, winds already howled in the capital, turning the sea into churning whitecaps as Beryl's eye scraped by the island's southern coast.
"We are very concerned about a wide variety of life threatening impacts in Jamaica," including storm surge, high winds and flash flooding, said Jon Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather.
Porter called Beryl "the strongest and most dangerous hurricane threat that Jamaica has faced, probably, in decades."
Jamaica was under a state of emergency and the island was declared a disaster zone hours before Beryl's impact. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said that the disaster zone declaration will remain for the next seven days. He also announced an island-wide curfew between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
Jamaica was under a state of emergency as the island was declared a disaster zone hours before the impact of Hurricane Beryl.
Holness said that the disaster zone declaration will remain for the next seven days. He also announced an island-wide curfew between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
An evacuation order was in place for communities across Jamaica that are prone to flooding and landslides. Holness urged Jamaicans to move away from low-lying areas.
Jamaica's southern coast, where Kingston is located, was expected to bear the brunt of Beryl with coastal water levels rising to 6 or 9 feet above normal tide levels in some areas. Heavy rains of 4 to 8 inches, with up to a foot in isolated areas, threatened flash flooding and mudslides on the mountainous island, Brennan said.
What category is Hurricane Beryl?
Beryl made landfall on the island of Carriacou in Grenada on Monday as a Category 4 — the earliest storm of that strength on record in the Atlantic — then late in the day its winds increased to Category 5 strength, meaning it had winds of 157 mph or higher.
Mexico's Caribbean coast was preparing for Beryl Wednesday. The government issued a hurricane warning for the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancun.
The head of Mexico's civil defense agency said that Beryl is expected to make a rare double strike on Mexico. Laura Velázquez said the hurricane is expected to make landfall between late Thursday and early Friday along a relatively unpopulated stretch of the Caribbean coast between Tulum and the inland town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Because the coast there is largely made up of lagoons and mangroves, there are few resorts or hotels in the area south of Tulum.
On Wednesday, Mexican government officials moved sea turtle eggs off Cancun beaches in an attempt to protect them from storm surge.
Will Hurricane Beryl hit Texas?
CBS affiliate KHOU-TV reportedthat whether Beryl crashes into Texas depends on how much strength it loses as it goes over land, as well as conditions in the Gulf of Mexico in the coming days. One key factor will be how wind shear affects Beryl.
"The flow of the wind pattern as it enters the Gulf is going to be more hostile," KHOU-TV meteorologist Kim Castro said. "The atmospheric conditions are going to start ripping it apart."
Another factor will be an area of high pressure in Texas that has been acting as a barrier but is forecast to move east later this week.
"Depending on where Beryl is situated, it could track towards Tampico (Mexico), the area where these tropical storms have tracked so far this season," Castro said. "…However, if this tracks a little further to the north, there would be nothing to kind of nudge it south, so there is a little exposure to the Texas coastline."
The hurricane center urged people in southern Texas to monitor Beryl's progress.
Beryl leaves trail of damage, destruction
Three people were reported killed in Grenada and Carriacou and another in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said. Three other deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where five people are missing, officials said. About 25,000 people in that area also were affected by heavy rainfall from Beryl.
One fatality in Grenada occurred after a tree fell on a house, Kerryne James, minister of climate resilience, environment and renewable energy, told The Associated Press.
She said the nearby islands of Carriacou and Petit Martinique sustained the greatest damage, with water, food and baby formula a priority. Beryl flattened scores of homes and businesses in Carriacou.
"The situation is grim," Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told a news conference Tuesday. "There is no power, and there is almost complete destruction of homes and buildings on the island. The roads are not passable, and in many instances they are cut off because of the large quantity of debris strewn all over the streets."
Mitchell added: "The possibility that there may be more fatalities remains a grim reality as movement is still highly restricted."
Streets from St. Lucia island south to Grenada were strewn with shoes, trees, downed power lines and other debris. Banana trees were snapped in half and cows lay dead in green pastures with homes made of tin and plywood tilting precariously nearby.
Meanwhile, Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, promised to rebuild the archipelago in a statement early Tuesday. He noted that 90% of homes on Union Island were destroyed, and that "similar levels of devastation" were expected on the islands of Myreau and Canouan.
"Hurricane Beryl has left in its wake immense destruction," Gonsalves said.
Several people evacuated Union Island via ferry and arrived at the Kingstown Ferry Terminal in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on Tuesday.
Sharon DeRoche, one of the evacuees, said Union Island is in a terrible state. She bore the hurricane in her bathroom before she fled. "It was a hard four hours battling with six of us in that little area," she said.
In Barbados, Wilfred Abrahams, minister of home affairs and information, said drones — which are faster than crews fanning across the island — would assess damage once Beryl passed.
Historic hurricane
Beryl was the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin, and was only the second Category 5 storm recorded in July since 2005, according to the hurricane center.
It took Beryl only 42 hours to strengthen from a tropical depression to a major hurricane, which is aCategory 3 storm or higher— a feat accomplished only six other times in Atlantic hurricane history, and with Sept. 1 as the earliest date, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.
Beryl was also the third Category 3 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic in June, following Audrey in 1957 and Alma in 1966, hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry said.
"Beryl is an extremely dangerous and rare hurricane for this time of year in this area," he told the AP in a phone interview earlier this week. "Unusual is an understatement," he said, calling Beryl historic.
Hurricane Ivan in 2004 was the last strongest hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean, causing catastrophic damage in Grenada as a Category 3 storm.
"So this is a serious threat, a very serious threat," Lowry said of Beryl.
Beryl is the second named storm in what is predicted to be a busy hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. Last week, Tropical Storm Alberto brought torrential flooding to portions of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. It was responsible for at least four deaths in the Mexican states of Nuevo Leon and Veracruz.
According to CBS News weather producer David Parkinson, Beryl is the farthest east a hurricane has formed in June, and one of only two to do so east of the Caribbean, with the other instance occurring in 1933. Parkinson expects Beryl to remain south of Jamaica, and forecasts that any U.S. impacts are still at least eight days away.
Warm waters are fueling Beryl, with ocean heat content in the deep Atlantic the highest on record for this time of year, according to Brian McNoldy, University of Miami tropical meteorology researcher.
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