Texas braces for Beryl as experts warn the storm could strengthen in the Gulf of Mexico: Live updates

Hurricane Beryl has the potential to hit southern Texas by early Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

Regardless of its exact track, the hurricane will likely bring life-threatening rip currents to the Gulf Coast this weekend.

The Category 3 storm’s path will become clearer in the coming days. For now, meteorologists say residents of the Gulf Coast region should stay on alert and monitor the forecast over the weekend.

Hurricane Beryl has killed at least ten people after devastating Jamaica, Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines this week.

At least two of those killed — the first in St George’s, Grenada and the second in Hanover, Jamaica — died after hurricane-force winds knocked trees onto their homes.

“It’s terrible. Everything’s gone. I’m in my house and scared,” Amoy Wellington of St. Elizabeth, Jamaica told Reuters. “It’s a disaster.”

Hurricane Beryl caused widespread destruction in Jamaica, Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines this week.

The storm left 400,000 people in Jamaica without power on Wednesday after flattening Grenada’s Carriacou Island in half an hour on Monday.

Hurricane Beryl is barreling towards Mexico and possibly the US, after tearing through Jamaica and the Windward Islands, bringing devastating winds and storm surges that have destroyed homes, wiped out power, and left at least eight people dead.

The storm continues to be a “major hurricane” after it got downgraded to Category 3 hurricane on Thursday morning, packing maximum sustained winds of 120mph (195kph).

See Hurricane Beryl’s path:

The Indian men’s cricket team arrived to a colourful welcome in capital Delhi on Thursday after being stranded in Barbados due to Hurricane Beryl.

Led by Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, the men’s team on Sunday won the T20 World Cup against South Africa in a nail-biter that broke a 12-year unsuccessful streak.

The team was eagerly expected after being stranded for three days in the Caribbean nation due to the Category 4 hurricane which passed through Barbados early Monday morning, causing heavy storm and high winds in the region.

The Independent’s Arpan Rai has the story:

Mexican officials are evacuating sea turtle eggs from beaches ahead of Hurricane Beryl, the Associated Press reports.

For some eggs, experts are transferring them to safer areas. In other cases, experts are creating corrals with sandbags to keep the eggs safe where they were laid, the outlet reports.

“Look, it’s not the best thing to do, but we are facing an emergency in which if they don’t take them out, they all could be lost,” biologist Graciela Tiburcio told the AP.

“In a normal situation this would not be right, because this will surely cause mortality,” Tiburcio continued. “There will be a lower rate of hatched eggs, that is the reality. But it’s also a reality that if the nests are left there, they’ll all be lost.”

The United Nations will put $4 million towards aid efforts in Jamaica, Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines in the wake of Hurricane Beryl, the BBC reports.

Earlier this week, the UN said officials in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines are working closely with local leaders to help with recovery efforts.

“To date, Grenada and St Vincent’s and the Grenadines have reported hundreds of people in shelters,” a UN spokesperson said.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has asked for the international community to “show solidarity” with all the Caribbean countries in Hurricane Beryl’s path, the spokesperson said.

Business owners and citizens in portions of Mexico are bracing for Hurricane Beryl’s impact as the dangerous storm barrels towards the Yucatan Peninsula.

“A westward to west-northwestward motion is expected during the next day or two, taking the core of Beryl away from the Cayman Islands this morning and over the Yucatan Peninsula early Friday. Beryl is expected to emerge over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico Friday night and turn northwestward,” the National Hurricane Center wrote in their most recent advisory.

The hurricane is currently passing southwest of the Cayman Islands, and is forecast to weaken during the next day or two, although it is thought to remain a hurricane until it makes landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula.

A Hurricane Warning is currently in effect for Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancun, including Cozumel.

A Hurricane Watch is also in effect for the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico south of Puerto Costa Maya to Chetumal and the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico north of Cancun to Cabo Catoche.

Hurricane conditions are expected in the Warning area on the Yucatan Peninsula late today or early Friday.

In the Watch area, hurricane conditions are possible along the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula as early as late today.

Tropical Storm Watches and Warnings are also in place for some areas of Mexico and Belize.

Barbados was caught in the tail end of Hurricane Beryl, which passed by the island on Monday as a Category 4 storm with winds of at least 130mph, enough to cause significant damage.

Fishermen in the region said that all the boats at the Bridgetown marina suffered some degree of damage, while a few entirely sank under big waves that washed over the docks. Footage shows the water in the marina littered with the debris of smashed boats.

The center of Hurricane Beryl, remaining a dangerous Category 3 storm, is passing just 50 miles (80km) southwest of Grand Cayman as of 8am EDT this morning.

Reports from a NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft states that maximum sustained winds are near 120 mph (195 km/h) with higher gusts as Beryl tears into the region.

Beryl’s hurricane-force winds are currently extending outward up to 45 miles (75 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 175 miles (280 km).

Storm surges could raise water levels along the immediate coast of the Cayman Islands as much as two to four feet above normal, bringing with it large and destructive waves.

Beryl is also bringing rainfall totals of four to six inches over the Cayman Islands on Thursday, the same expected for the Yucatan Peninsula later today into Friday. The Yucatan Peninsula could see localized amounts of 10 inches as well.

Scattered instances of flash flooding is expected over the region and large surf swells currently impacting portions of the coast of Jamaica, Cuba, and the Cayman Islands, which have the potential to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.

These swells are also predicted to spread to the Yucatan Peninsula and portions of Central America later today and to eastern Mexico and much of the Gulf Coast of the US by late Friday .

Preparations were already underway before the hurricane reached the Cayman Islands, after Beryl already left a path of destruction it its wake this week through Jamaica, Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

More than 1,000 people in the Cayman Islands were evacuated, George Town officials said, as two dozen additional flights were added to help with the evacuations off the islands, The New York Times reported.

Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly appeared on Radio Cayman on Wednesday, according to the newspaper, and strongly urged residents to stay in place beginning at 6pm Wednesday until an all-clear was issued.

“Let us remain calm, stay prepared, look after one another as we face this challenge together,” she said. “We can minimize the impact of Hurricane Beryl and protect our community if we do it together.”