TULUM, Mexico (AP) — After leaving a trail of destruction across the eastern Caribbean and killing at least nine people, Hurricane Beryl strengthened to a Category 3 storm late Thursday as it barreled toward Mexico’s resort-studded Yucatan Peninsula.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Beryl, which was the first category 5 hurricane in the AtlanticWinds were now gusting to 115 mph (185 km/h) after easing earlier Thursday.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued a statement saying Beryl could directly hit Tulum, which, although smaller than Cancun, is still home to thousands of tourists and residents.
“It is recommended to take refuge on higher ground, in shelters or with friends or family members,” López Obrador wrote. “Do not hesitate, material goods can be replaced.”
Jack Beven, senior hurricane specialist at the U.S. Hurricane Center, said that “the biggest immediate threat, now that the storm is moving away from the Cayman Islands, is landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula.”
The storm’s center was about 135 miles (220 kilometers) east-southeast of Tulum, Mexico, and was moving west-northwest at 16 mph (26 kph), the hurricane center said.
Beryl is expected to bring heavy rain and winds to Mexico’s Caribbean coast, before crossing the Yucatan Peninsula and strengthening in the Gulf of Mexico to make a second landfall on northeastern Mexico.
As winds began to gust across Tulum’s white sand beaches Thursday afternoon, four-wheelers equipped with megaphones drove across the sand, asking people to leave. Tourists snapped photos of the surging waves, but military personnel urged them to leave as Beryl headed toward a planned landing spot near Tulum early Friday.
In recent days, Beryl damaged or destroyed 95 percent of homes on two islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, scrambled fishing boats in Barbados and tore off roofs in Jamaica before making landfall in the Cayman Islands early Thursday.
Mexico’s popular Caribbean coast has prepared shelters, evacuated some small outlying coastal communities and even relocated Sea turtle eggs off beaches threatened by storm surge.
In Playa del Carmen, most businesses were closed Thursday and some had to board up their windows as tourists jogged and some residents walked their dogs under sunny skies. In Tulum, authorities closed businesses and evacuated beachfront hotels.
Francisco Bencomo, general manager of the Umi Hotel in Tulum, said all guests had left. “In these conditions, we will be completely confined,” he said, adding that there were no plans to bring guests back until July 10.
“We have cut off the gas and electricity. We also have an emergency floor where two maintenance workers will be in isolation,” he said from the hotel. “We have placed them in the room furthest from the beach and the windows.”
“I hope we have as little impact on the hotel as possible, that the hurricane moves quickly through Tulum and that it’s nothing serious,” he said.
Tourists have also taken precautions. Lara Marsters, 54, a therapist visiting Tulum from Boise, Idaho, said: “This morning we woke up and just filled all our empty water bottles with tap water and put them in the freezer … so we would have water to flush the toilet.”
“We’re expecting a power outage,” Marsters said. “We’re going to take cover and stay safe.”
Myriam Setra, a 34-year-old tourist from Dallas, Texas, was eating a sandwich on the beach earlier Thursday. “I thought we’d get the last bit of sunshine today, too. Then we’ll have to hunker down and stay inside until the storm hopefully passes.”
But once Beryl re-emerges in the Gulf of Mexico a day later, forecasters predict it could reach hurricane strength again and hit just short of the Mexico-U.S. border in Matamoros, an area that was previously deluged in June by Tropical Storm Alberto.
Velázquez said temporary storm shelters were in place at schools and hotels, but efforts to evacuate a few highly exposed villages – such as Punta Allen, which sits on a narrow strip of land south of Tulum – and Mahahual, further south – had been only partially successful.
The worst damage from Beryl appears to be behind it. Its observation wall brushed Jamaica’s southern coast Wednesday afternoon while telephone poles and trees blocked roads in Kingston on Thursday morning.
Authorities confirmed that a young man died Wednesday after being swept away by a storm drain while trying to retrieve a ball. A woman also died after a house collapsed on her.
Residents took advantage of a lull in the rain to begin clearing away the debris.
Sixty percent of the island was left without electricity, water and limited telecommunications. Government authorities assessed the damage, but their efforts were hampered by the lack of communications, especially in the southern parishes that suffered the most damage.
About 1,432 people remained in shelters in Jamaica, including Desrine Campbell, a resident of the low-lying community of Old Harbour Bay, who lamented: “My house is almost flooded!”
Nearby, Carlton Golding said sadly, “I lost everything this time.” Golding’s home was completely destroyed by the hurricane, the second time he has suffered storm damage.
In the parish of Clarendon, in the city’s south-central part, residents tried to repair damaged roofs and clear fallen trees. Many roads in the area remained partially blocked by fallen electricity and telecommunications poles.
Cayman Islands Premier Juliana O’Connor on Thursday thanked residents and visitors for contributing to “collective calm” as Beryl approached by following storm protocols.
Michelle Forbes, director of the National Emergency Management Organization of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said about 95 percent of homes in Mayreau and Union Island were damaged by Hurricane Beryl.
Three people were killed in Grenada and Carriacou, as well as one in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, authorities said. Three other deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where four people are missing, authorities said.
One person died in Grenada after a tree fell on a house, Environment Minister Kerryne James told The Associated Press.
Separately, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Thursday that Tropical Storm Aletta has formed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico. Aletta, which is about 190 miles (310 kilometers) from Manzanillo and has maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph), is expected to move away from land and dissipate by the weekend.
___
Myers reported from Kingston, Jamaica. Associated Press writers Renloy Trail in Kingston, Jamaica; Mark Stevenson, María Verza and Mariana Martínez Barba in Mexico City; Coral Murphy Marcos in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Lucanus Ollivierre in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, contributed to this report.
