Hurricane Beryl roars by Jamaica and heads toward Mexico

Hurricane Beryl swept past the Cayman Islands on Thursday as the storm churned toward Mexico, bringing the threat of strong winds, a dangerous storm surge and damaging waves by early Friday.

Beryl was about 550km east of Tulum, Mexico, carrying sustained winds near 185km/h as a Category 3 hurricane, the US National Hurricane Center said in its latest bulletin. The storm was forecast to remain a hurricane until it makes landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula early Friday. Beryl is expected to emerge over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico on Friday night local time and move northwestward across the gulf on Saturday.

Beryl has already left a trail of destruction through the Caribbean, and earlier this week its winds topped the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, achieving a rare Category 5 strength. It was the earliest Atlantic storm to do so, signalling an unusually active hurricane season as hot ocean waters fuel tropical systems. The storm weakened after sweeping past Jamaica and Grenada, but still left behind widespread damage.

Clean-up and recovery efforts began in Jamaica on Thursday after Beryl churned just south of the island, causing widespread damage, at least one death and knocking out power to about 60 per cent of the population. The country’s airports are being evaluated to see when they can be reopened, but the Jamaica Observer reported that a small section of the roof at Norman Manley International Airport had been damaged.

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Hurricane Beryl roars by Jamaica and heads toward Mexico

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Early reports for Grand Cayman suggest some power outages along the eastern side of the island, though there have not been major damage reports so far. Winds are expected to start waning in the Grand Cayman around midday, according to a weather update from the Cayman Islands National Weather Service.

Conditions in the Yucatan will likely start to deteriorate Thursday, with torrential rains, strong winds, and crashing surf raking the region, according to the National Meteorological Service of Mexico.

Meanwhile, the threat to Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production is diminishing as the path of the storm spares major drilling areas and platforms in US federal waters, according to data from the hurricane centre and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Major platforms including Exxon Mobil Corp’s Hoover, Occidental Petroleum Corp’s Boomvang and Shell’s Perdido that were in the path on Wednesday are now clear.

Beryl made landfall Monday on Carriacou, the second largest of Grenada’s islands. The electricity and communications system has been completely destroyed and the island’s marina – the heart of its tourism industry – was also significantly damaged, Grenada prime minister Dickon Mitchell said in a national address. “It is going to be a mammoth task to rebuild,” Mitchell said. – Bloomberg