The Foreign Office has issued an update to people travelling to a holiday hotspot and said that ‘all airports will be closed’ as six people were confirmed dead. Hurricane Beryl is set to slam into the Caribbean as early as this morning (July 3) and officials have told travellers that people could face evacuation orders – and to comply with the authorities.
In the update the Foreign Office said: “Weather projections forecast a major hurricane to hit Jamaica, possible as early as the morning of Wednesday 3 July. International and domestic airports are closed from 2200 local on Tuesday 2 July, and will only reopen when assessed safe to do so. You should follow and monitor local and international weather updates from the US National Hurricane Center and follow the advice of local authorities including any evacuation orders. See Extreme weather and natural disasters.”
Hurricane Beryl roared through open waters on Tuesday as a monstrous Category 5 storm on a path that would take it near Jamaica and the Cayman Islands after earlier making landfall in the southeast Caribbean, killing at least six people. A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica and a hurricane watch for Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac.
Beryl was forecast to start losing intensity on Tuesday but still to be near major hurricane strength when it passes near Jamaica on Wednesday, the Cayman Islands on Thursday and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, according to the National Hurricane Centre. The centre warned that Beryl was expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surge to Jamaica, where 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. “It is, however, not a time to panic.”
Beryl is the earliest Category 5 storm ever to form in the Atlantic, fuelled by record warm waters. On Tuesday, the storm was located about 300 miles (485 kilometres) southeast of Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic.
It had top winds of 165 mph (270 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 22 mph (35 kph).
“Beryl remains an impressive Category 5 hurricane,” the National Hurricane Centre said. A tropical storm warning was in place for the entire southern coast of Hispaniola, an island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
As the storm barrelled through the Caribbean Sea, rescue crews in the southeast Caribbean fanned out across the region to determine the extent of the damage that Hurricane Beryl inflicted after landing on Carriacou, an island in Grenada, as a Category 4 storm.
Three people were reported killed in Grenada and another in St Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said. One fatality in Grenada occurred after a tree fell on a house, Kerryne James, minister of climate resilience, environment and renewable energy, told The Associated Press.
She said the nearby islands of Carriacou and Petit Martinique sustained the greatest damage, with water, food and baby formula a priority. An emergency team was expected to travel to Carriacou on Tuesday morning.
“The situation is grim,” Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told a news conference. “There is no power, and there is almost complete destruction of homes and buildings on the island.
“The roads are not passable, and in many instances they are cut off because of the large quantity of debris strewn all over the streets.”