by Hurricane Beryl is headed for Mexico and possibly the United States, after tearing through Jamaica and the Windward Islands, bringing damaging winds and storm surges that have destroyed homes, knocked out power, and left at least eight people dead.
The storm remains a “major hurricane” after being downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane on Thursday morning, packing maximum sustained winds of 120mph (195kph).
Follow our live coverage of Hurricane Beryl here.
Beryl dragged a deadly path through Jamaica, Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines, destroying buildings and killing at least eight people, including one in Jamaica and three in Venezuela where the hurricane’s outer rings caused rain heavy.
On Thursday morning, winds and rain from the hurricane were still affecting Jamaica and Prime Minister Andrew Holness extended the curfew until 6am.
After Jamaica, the hurricane was passing through the Caymon Islands and heading towards the Yucatan Peninsula and Belize on Thursday.
Beryl was forecast to weaken slightly over the next day or two, but still be at or near major hurricane strength when it moves into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula late Thursday or Friday, according to the National Center for US hurricane.
Officials in Mexico have warned that the storm can do a “rare” double strike.
Laura Velazquez, head of Mexico’s civil defense agency, said the hurricane is expected to make landfall along a relatively unpopulated stretch of the Caribbean coast between Tulum and the inland town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto.
Because the coast is mostly made up of lagoons and mangroves, there are few resorts or hotels in the area south of Tulum.
The hurricane is expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it crosses the Jutland Peninsula and re-emerge over the weekend at storm strength into the Gulf of Mexico..
Mr. Velazquez said Beryl is then expected to hit Mexican territory a second time in the Gulf coast states of Veracruz or Tamaulipas, near the Texas border.
If Hurricane Beryl maintains its strength, it has the potential to make landfall in southern Texas and Louisiana over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
Earlier, Beryl broke records, becoming the earliest Category 4 hurricane and later the earliest Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic.
Officials in the Windward Islands, where Beryl first made landfall, received “widespread reports of destruction and devastation in Carriacou and Petite Martinique”, said Grenada’s prime minister, Dickon Mitchell.
“In half an hour, Carriacou was flattened.”
A total of eight deaths were confirmed, with Jamaica confirming the first on Thursday and four dead in the Windward islands, including one person killed in Grenada’s capital, St George, when a tree fell on a house.
Three deaths were reported in Venezuela, where rain from the outer rings of Hurricane Beryl caused flooding and landslides.
“We hope there are no other deaths or injuries,” Mitchell said. “But remember the challenge we have in Carriacou and Petite Martinique.”
Authorities were scrambling to assess the situation on the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, where there were initial reports of extensive damage but communication was still a challenge, he said.
On Greandine Union Island, about 90 percent of homes have been damaged or destroyed, he said.
Beryl is now only the second storm on record to reach Category 5 intensity in July, after Emily in mid-July 2005.
Earlier on Sunday, it became the earliest storm to reach Category 4 and the first ever in June.
The hurricane was downgraded on Sunday evening to a Category 3, but picked up power and speed over warm ocean water and was upgraded to a Category 4 on Monday morning.
As the hurricane hit St. Vincent and the Grenadines over the carnival weekend, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves on Sunday urged residents to postpone their festivities and prepare for Beryl to hit.
Mr Gonsalves has already ordered bars to close early and postpone some carnival events, according to News Loop.
Airports including Barbados, Grenada, and St Lucia were also closed on Sunday night in preparation for the storm, however Grenada’s Maurice Bishop International Airport reopened on Tuesday.
The storm is expected to remain a major hurricane as it moves through the Caribbean, with a Tropical Storm Watch in effect for the southern coast of Hispaniola.
A Hurricane Watch was also in effect Tuesday for Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac and the coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancun, including Cozumel.
After making landfall in Mexico, Beryl is expected to weaken. But a computer model of Hurricane Beryl’s many possible paths, known as a “spaghetti” model, showed the direction the destructive storm could take as it moves toward the southeastern U.S. in the warm bathwaters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The model showed the storm potentially blowing into the Gulf Coast, near eastern Texas and Louisiana.
Global warming, caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas, is increasing the temperature of the land and ocean. Warmer ocean waters fuel hurricanes. The area where Beryl is located, the ocean temperature is 2 to 3 degrees above normal for this time of year, levels not normally seen until September.
