KINGSTON/PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Hurricane Beryl barreled toward Jamaica as a powerful Category 4 storm today, after flattening homes and devastating agriculture on smaller islands in the eastern Caribbean, killing at least three people.
At around 0500 EDT (0900 GMT), the hurricane was about 185 miles (300 km) east-southeast of the Jamaican capital of Kingston, according the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC), packing maximum sustained winds of 145 miles per hour (230 kph).
“Beryl is expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surge to Jamaica on Wednesday and the Cayman Islands Wednesday night and Thursday,” NHC said in an advisory. A hurricane warning is in effect for both places.
Hurricane conditions are expected to reach the coast of Jamaica about midday local time, with tropical storm-strength winds from late morning, making outside preparations difficult or dangerous, it said.
In the capital Kingston, cars queued at petrol stations as people filled additional containers with fuel. Residents stocked up on water and other essential supplies and boarded up shops and houses.
“Yeah right now (we’re) worrying about the storm. You know it’s Category 5 and in Jamaica people are worried and always shopping and buying things as in this store,” Andre, a salesperson in a local store said, without giving his full name.
The unusually early hurricane, whose rapid strengthening scientists said was likely fueled by human-caused climate change, is expected to still be a hurricane when it passes near Jamaica and the Cayman Islands later this week.
Beryl, the 2024 Atlantic season’s first hurricane and the earliest storm on record to reach the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, felled power lines and unleashed flash floods across smaller islands.
The Miami-based U.S. hurricane center estimates that the massive weather system is moving toward the west-northwest at a speed of 22 mph (35 kph).
In Fort-de-France on the French Caribbean island of Martinique, north of St. Vincent, video shared on social media showed flooded streets and locals attempting to clear away debris.
In addition to Haiti’s southern coast, the NHC also declared a hurricane watch for Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, dotted with beach resorts popular with tourists.
Ahead of the storm’s approach expected Thursday night, Mexico’s defense ministry said the army, air force, and national guard had activated emergency response protocols in the three Yucatan states, with 120 shelters opened and nearly 4,900 troops on guard on the peninsula.
In resort town of Cancun, supplies of the wooden boards used to protect shop fronts were dwindling as residents prepared for Beryl’s arrival.
The unusually early timing and rapid intensification of the storm is partly due to warmer ocean temperatures, scientists say.
Climate change probably contributed to Beryl’s early formation and the speed with which it intensified, according to scientists surveyed by Reuters, which could provide an unsettling preview of future storms.
Global warming has helped push temperatures in the North Atlantic to record highs, said Christopher Rozoff, an atmospheric scientist at the U.S.-based National Center for Atmospheric Research. The warmer waters cause more evaporation, which fuels more intense hurricanes featuring higher wind speeds, he said.
Beryl jumped from a Category 1 to a Category 4 storm in under 10 hours, according to Andra Garner, a Rowan University meteorologist. That marked the fastest intensification ever recorded before September, the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, she said.
