Hurricane Beryl remained a dangerous Category 4 hurricane as it passed just to the south of Jamaica on Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
As of 8 p.m. the center of Beryl was located about 100 miles west of Kingston, Jamaica and 215 miles east-southeast of Grand Cayman with sustained winds of 130 mph as it moved quickly west-northwest at 20 mph. Hurricane force winds extend out 45 miles and tropical-storm-force winds extend out 185 miles.
A hurricane warning remains in effect for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac along with part of Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula while a hurricane watch and tropical storm warnings are in effect other parts of the peninsula. A tropical storm watch is in effect for the coast of Belize.
“On the forecast track, the center of Beryl will pass near or over the southern coast of Jamaica during the next few hours. After that, the center is expected to pass near or over the Cayman Islands tonight or early Thursday and move over the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico Thursday night or early Friday,” said NHC forecasters.
The long-term track has it near the Mexico-Texas border in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday as a hurricane.
For #TimelapseTuesday, this #GeoColor imagery from @NOAA's #GOESEast satellite shows the first 4-days of #Beryl, when the storm grew from a tropical cyclone in the western Atlantic Ocean to a category 5 hurricane in the Caribbean Sea.
More on #HurricaneBeryl:… pic.twitter.com/sWSLLUUKNe
— NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) July 2, 2024
In Kingston, people boarded up windows, fishermen pulled their boats out of the water before sitting around a table to play dominoes beside a bay, and workers dismantled roadside advertising boards to protect them from the expected lashing winds to come. Officials warned residents in flood-prone areas to prepare for evacuation.
“I am encouraging all Jamaicans to take the hurricane as a serious threat,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said in a public address Tuesday. “It is, however, not a time to panic.”
The storm struck the Windward Islands on Monday making landfall on Grenada’s Carriacou Island also as a Category 4 hurricane, but then spun up to Category 5 late Monday and into Tuesday with sustained winds of up to 165 mph before losing some steam overnight.
Hurricane specialist Philip Klotzbach with Colorado State University said Beryl became the earliest Category 5 hurricane in recorded history.
“One reason why Hurricane Beryl intensified to a Category 5 hurricane over two weeks earlier than any other Atlantic Cat. 5 on record is due to extremely high ocean heat content levels,” he posted on X. Caribbean ocean heat content today is normally what we get in the middle of September.”
Beryl joined hurricanes Inez (1966), David (1979), Allen (1980), Dean (2007), Felix (2007), Matthew (2016), Irma (2017), Maria (2017) as the only eastern Caribbean hurricanes with 165 mph winds or greater.
“Some weakening is forecast during the next day or two. However, Beryl is forecast to be at or near major hurricane intensity while it passes the Cayman Islands,” forecasters said. “Additional weakening is expected thereafter, though Beryl is forecast to remain a hurricane until it makes landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula.”
Here are the 11 am EDT Wednesday, Jul 3 Key Messages for #Hurricane #Beryl – Visit https://t.co/tW4KeGe9uJ for the latest forecast updates. pic.twitter.com/XCdnWAohGx
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) July 3, 2024
Storm surge could be from 6 to 9 feet in Jamaica, 2 to 4 feet in the Caymans and 1 to 3 feet on the southern coast of Hispaniola. It’s expected to be from 3 to 5 feet on the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Beryl is also forecast to drop from 4 to 8 inches of rain with some areas getting as much as 12 inches on Jamaica today while dropping another 4 to 6 inches on part of Haiti, 2 to 4 inches with some areas up to 6 inches over the Cayman Islands into Thursday and 2 to 6 inches over the Yucatan with some areas getting up to 8 inches through Friday.
As Beryl barreled through the Caribbean Sea, rescue crews in southeastern islands fanned out to determine the extent of the damage the hurricane inflicted on Carriacou, an island in Grenada.
Three people were reported killed in Grenada and Carriacou and another in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said. Two 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, the environment minister, told The Associated Press. She said Carriacou and Petit Martinique sustained the greatest damage, with scores of homes and businesses flattened in Carriacou.
Grenada’s prime minister, Dickon Mitchell, said Tuesday there was no power, roads are impassable and the possible rise of the death toll “remains a grim reality.”
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has promised to rebuild the archipelago. 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.
The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.
Grenada, known as the “spice isle,” is one of the world’s top exporters of nutmeg. Mitchell noted that the bulk of the spices are grown in the northern part of the island, which was hit hardest by Beryl.
The NHC is also keeping track of a tropical wave with disorganized shower and thunderstorm near the Windward Islands.
“Development, if any, of this system should be slow to occur while it moves quickly westward to west-northwestward at 20 to 25 mph across the Caribbean Sea during the next few days. Regardless of development, gusty winds and locally heavy rainfall are possible across portions of the Lesser Antilles through this evening,” forecasters said.
The NHC gives it a 10% chance of formation in the next two days and 20% in the next seven.
The next name for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1-Nov. 30, is Debby.
The first named story of the season, Tropical Storm Alberto, formed on June 19 after a slow start to the season. The height of hurricane season, though, runs from mid-August into October.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast an above average year in the Atlantic with 17 to 25 named storms, of which eight to 13 are expected to become hurricanes, and four to seven of those be major hurricanes.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
