Kingston / Mexico City / San Antonio /Hurricane Beryl made landfall early Friday morning north of the municipality of Tulum (Quintana Roo) in the Mexican Caribbean, but so far no injuries or deaths have been reported, reported the coordinator of Civil Protection of Mexico, Laura Velázquez. At the moment, the cyclone is traveling through the country by land, then continuing towards the United States as the first tropical system to reach its coasts this season, foreseeably on Monday.
“We have no reports of injuries or deaths so far. I repeat, these are preliminary data. We are in the relief phase,” Velázquez said during a press conference led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Meanwhile, the president recommended that people not go out because there are still fallen trees that could represent a risk to the population.
Velázquez said Beryl hit Quintana Roo at 05:05 local time (11:05 GMT) with maximum sustained winds of 175 kilometers per hour and gusts of 220 kilometers per hour as a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. At the moment, Beryl is advancing on land as a Category 1 hurricane over the Mexican state of Yucatán (neighboring Quintana Roo), according to the National Meteorological Service (SMN) of Mexico.
Mexican authorities conduct surveys to quantify damage caused by the cyclone
“At this moment we are already in the relief phase, we are already making rounds mainly in Tulum, throughout the length and breadth of the municipality,” said the head of Civil Protection.
He said that surveys are being carried out to quantify the damage, although the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has reported that in Tulum approximately 40% of the area is without electricity, while in Cozumel (a neighboring municipality) seven neighborhoods have power problems. In addition, in Isla Mujeres 50% of homes remain in the dark.
Mexican authorities said there are 25,611 personnel deployed in the area to assist in the rescue efforts, of which 4,150 are members of the National Defense Secretariat, 1,128 of the Navy, 4,451 of the National Guard and 2,189 of the CFE.
In its most recent report, the SMN indicated that: “Beryl is now a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. It is located on land over Yucatan and its cloud bands maintain the probability of intense to torrential rains, strong winds, storm surge and high waves in the Yucatan Peninsula.”
For his part, Velázquez said that so far 58 temporary shelters have been set up, housing 2,193 people who have hot food and “are being very well cared for.” He also reported that the airports in Tulum, Cozumel and Cancún have not suffered any damage.
The governor of Quintana Roo, Mara Lezama, reported the fall of trees and damage in the municipalities of Solidaridad and Benito Juárez, which are the most populated areas, in addition to the fall of some walls.
/ EFE/Alonso Cupul
Beryl is the first hurricane of the season and sets an “alarming precedent” because a cyclone of maximum intensity has never formed in the Atlantic at this time of year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned on Tuesday.
Of the three cyclones that have occurred in the Atlantic this season, Beryl would be the third to hit Mexico, where Tropical Storm Chris made landfall on Sunday, causing flooding in the center and east of the country.
Meanwhile, Storm Alberto, which made landfall on June 20, left six dead in Nuevo Leon, a state on Mexico’s northern border, and caused destruction and flooding in Monterrey, the country’s second most populous city.
Meanwhile, the Texas government is preparing to receive Beryl, which caused death and destruction in the Caribbean as a hurricane and is moving through Mexico this Friday. The hurricane, which a few days ago reached Category 5, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, is expected to strengthen in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico when it completes its land route through Mexico, to reach Texas, likely on Monday morning.
The Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) has raised its emergency response level as part of preparations ordered by Governor Greg Abbott for Beryl’s arrival. Beryl is currently located 650 miles (1,045 kilometers) east-southeast of Brownsville, Texas, on the border with Mexico.
“Texas is prepared to rapidly deploy all available emergency response resources to assist at-risk communities,” the Texas governor said in a statement.
The Republican also urged residents and visitors in coastal areas to develop an emergency plan, review hurricane evacuation routes and continue monitoring weather conditions to ensure their safety and that of their loved ones.
A voluntary evacuation of the Coastal Bend area, which includes nine coastal counties and includes the city of Corpus Christi, begins Friday, while other areas prepare with sandbags for the storm’s arrival.
The city of Brownsville, like cities in the southwestern Rio Grande Valley, has handed out hundreds of sandbags to residents to form barricades to prevent flooding.
The main threat Texas has faced from past hurricanes is heavy rains and flash flooding, such as that caused by Hurricane Harvey, which hit the Texas coast in August 2017.
Hurricane Beryl struck Jamaica on Wednesday with Category 4 winds, which imposed a state of emergency amid fears that the cyclone could cause catastrophic damage in the country similar to that recorded on several islands in the Eastern Caribbean.
Initial reports of damage indicate that more than 400,000 Jamaicans, or around 65% of the customers of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), were without power on Wednesday due to the impact of Hurricane Beryl on the island.
JPS communications director Winsome Callum said “remote power restoration” is underway until authorities lift the hurricane warning and clear the way for crews to enter flood-affected communities.
“We hope that number will decrease tonight but unfortunately most will still be without power overnight until we get the all clear from the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management,” Callum was quoted as saying by local media.
The intense winds of Category 4 Hurricane Beryl also caused damage to the island’s infrastructure and to Norman Manley International Airport in the capital, Kingston. The airport’s operators, PAC Kingston Airport Limited, reported that the roof of the passenger boarding area was damaged. According to the statement, a final assessment of the damage will be made once the hurricane has passed.
The international airport has been closed since Tuesday at 10:00 p.m. local time and its reopening will depend on the situation following the cyclone.
Images shared by users of the social network X show roofs torn off and trees and power lines down due to the impact of the gusts of wind. The latest bulletin from Jamaica’s meteorological agency reported that the rains associated with the hurricane will continue in the centre and west of the island, accompanied by strong winds.
In light of the likely catastrophic damage, the Jamaican government has declared the island a disaster zone for the next seven days and imposed a curfew for the day.
Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) has urged people living in low-lying and flood-prone areas to move to shelters, which house at least 50 people.
“All shelters have been activated,” including the one set up at the National Stadium, said the acting director general of Odpem, Richard Thompson, whose latest data reports some 500 people housed in the shelters.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said an evacuation order was in effect for areas prone to flooding and landslides, both at sea level and near ravines or waterways. He also said authorities had established a special operation “to maintain public order” during Beryl’s passage through the Caribbean country, which has high crime and homicide rates.
Beryl hit Grenada earlier this week, with “approximately 98% of structures on the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique” damaged or destroyed, according to Terence Walters, coordinator of the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma).
Beryl hit Grenada earlier this week, with “approximately 98% of structures damaged or destroyed” on the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
Public buildings, homes and private businesses have been seriously affected on these islands, where agriculture and vegetation have been completely devastated.
Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said the first hurricane of the Atlantic season had also caused “total destruction” of the power grid and communications network in Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
Three people died on the various islands of Grenada due to the hurricane, which also caused the death of one person in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
In northeastern Venezuela, at least 1,440 people in the town of Cumanacoa, in Sucre state, are in “solidarity shelters” after losing their homes due to the overflow of a river during Hurricane Beryl.
Three people died in this area and five are still missing.according to Venezuelan authorities.
The Dominican Republic and Haiti were luckier, emerging almost unscathed from the hurricane, whose main effect on the island of Hispaniola, shared by both countries, was the strong waves that battered the Caribbean coast.
Nearly half a million people were left without water supplies due to the effects of the cyclone and thousands without electricity, according to the preliminary report on the damage.
