Live Updates: Hurricane Beryl Passes Cayman Islands on Way to Mexico
The storm, now a Category 3 hurricane, has already slammed Jamaica and Grenada this week. A hurricane warning was in effect for the Cayman Islands on Thursday.
Hurricane Beryl is passing the Cayman Islands on Thursday after lashing Jamaica, charting a course of destruction through the Caribbean while putting the countries in its path on edge.
The storm has flattened islands, inundated communities and killed at least eight people. The earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded, it has lost some of its force and its now at Category 3 strength, with wind speeds of 115 miles per hour, but is still bringing dangerous winds, storm surges and heavy rainfall.
Here are the key things to know about the storm:
Preparations in Mexico: Officials in Mexico warned that the country could be hit twice in the coming days. Forecasters expect it to make landfall on the Yucatán Peninsula early Friday and then along northern Mexico’s east coast early Monday. Forecasters said the storm could weaken but is likely to remain a hurricane at least until it hits the Yucatán.
A warning in the Cayman Islands: A hurricane warning was in effect for the Cayman Islands on Thursday, and forecasters expected strong winds, dangerous storm surge, damaging waves and flooding.
Assessing the damage in Jamaica: Hundreds of thousands of households in Jamaica lost power, and several communities were flooded. Officials said that the full extent of the damage was not yet clear.
A record hurricane: Beryl is the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean, according to Philip Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University who specializes in tropical cyclones. The previous record was set by Hurricane Emily on July 17, 2005, he said. Beryl’s quick escalation was a direct result of the above-average sea surface temperatures as well as a harbinger of what is to come this hurricane season.
People clearing debris from Hurricane Beryl in Old Harbor, Jamaica, on Thursday. Jamaica’s information minister, Dana Morris Dixon, said the hurricane had caused “significant dislocation and damage.” Credit...Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Jamaicans were slowly picking up the pieces on Thursday following the passage of Hurricane Beryl, which claimed at least one life, devastated farmlands, roads and houses and left thousands in darkness.
Beryl caused “significant dislocation and damage,” Dana Morris Dixon, the information minister, said in a statement on Thursday. She said the government had transitioned into assessment and response mode. A national curfew ended Thursday morning. Emergency and relief officials are touring affected areas.
The situation has been particularly brutal in St. Elizabeth, in the southwest, the country’s “breadbasket” for its supply of key agricultural goods. Treasure Beach, a popular tourist destination, was battered, with many homes losing their roofs to Beryl’s fury.
“Southwest St. Elizabeth is facing complete devastation,” said Floyd Green, a member of Parliament and Jamaica’s agriculture minister.
A woman was killed after a tree fell on her house in western Jamaica, the island’s disaster agency reported on Wednesday night. A 20-year-old man is feared dead after he was swept away by raging floodwaters in a gully in Kingston, the capital. More than 1,000 people were in shelters as of Thursday morning.
Still, officials say the destruction could have been far worse.
“The damage was not what we had expected, and so we’re very grateful for that,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness told CNN. “I think Jamaica was spared the worst.”
Power and water supplies were slowly being restored to the hard-hit areas of the eastern and southern parishes of Kingston, the capital, Portland and St. Thomas, Manchester, St Elizabeth and Clarendon.
The storm passed as a ferocious Category 4 hurricane just off Jamaica’s southern coast. More than 60 percent of customers were without water and light as of Thursday morning, representatives of the main providers told local media.
Downed utility poles, trees and debris covered many damaged roadways. “The whole place mash up,” Steve Taylor, a resident of the low-lying coastal town of Mitchell Town, told the local television station, Television Jamaica.
Sangster International Airport, located in the tourism mecca of Montego Bay on the northwestern end of the island, was expected to reopen on Thursday, Daryl Vaz, the transport minister, said in a statement posted on social media. However, the country’s main airport in Kingston, Norman Manley, remained closed as the authorities repaired the roof of the passenger pier for boarding and arrivals. It’s expected to reopen on Friday, Mr. Vaz said.
The government said public sector workers could return to work, while some commercial institutions have called in their employees. Schools, some which have suffered infrastructure damage, have closed for the summer. Jamaica’s central bank advised that it would remain closed until Friday.
Source: National Hurricane Center All times on the map are Mexico Central Time. Map shows probabilities of at least 5 percent. The forecast is for up to five days, with that time span starting up to three hours before the reported time that the storm reaches its latest location. Wind speed probability data is not available north of 60.25 degrees north latitude.By William B. Davis, John Keefe and Bea Malsky
Shell Oil said it was evacuating nonessential workers from a floating oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The platform, called Perdido, is located about 200 miles south of Galveston, Texas, in about 8,000 feet of water. The company said there were “no other impacts on our production” because of the hurricane.
The Mexican government is rushing to prepare for Beryl’s arrival. The authorities have deployed more than 13,000 officials and members of the armed forces — along with rescue dogs, mobile kitchens and water treatment plants — to Quintana Roo, a southern state facing the Caribbean that will be the first to feel the storm’s impact.
Some preventive evacuations have taken place in municipalities that will bear the brunt of Beryl’s force, including Tulum and Felipe Carrillo Puerto. In total, 120 emergency shelters are being set up across the state, both in urban and rural areas.
Conozcan y ubiquen los refugios 🏡 de primera apertura que hemos habilitado en todo #QuintanaRoo, ante el impacto del huracán #Beryl 🌀 en nuestras costas.
Preparations for Beryl’s arrival are underway across Mexico, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said at a news conference on Thursday morning. The storm is projected to hit the country twice in the coming days: It will first arrive in the Yucatán Peninsula and then, after traversing the Gulf of Mexico, it is expected to reach the coast of the northern state of Tamaulipas. In Cancún, yachts were clustered in an inland waterway for protection.
Hurricane Beryl is continuing to move west-northwest away from the Cayman Islands as a Category 3 storm, with sustained winds of 115 miles per hour. The storm system is expected to produce strong winds, “a dangerous storm surge” and damaging winds on the coast of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula by early Friday, the National Hurricane Center said.
Grenada's Carriacou island, on May 8, 2023, left, and on Tuesday, right, after Hurricane Beryl had passed.
As Hurricane Beryl churns toward Jamaica, the islands devastated in its path reckoned with the scale of the destruction on Wednesday.
In Grenada, satellite imagery showed flattened houses and buildings without roofs. Grenada’s islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique bore the brunt of the damage. Officials said roughly 98 percent of the islands’ buildings had been destroyed.
In Argyle, a popular tourist town with dozens of vacation rentals in Carriacou, before-and-after images showed structures reduced to rubble.
The island’s docks, usually filled with boats, were empty. Along the northeast coastline of Carriacou, damage continued far inland, satellite imagery showed. With tourism as one of the island’s main sources of income, the airport and some hotels reopened as cleanup operations began, the Grenada Hotel and Tourism Association said.
Despite the extensive damage, so far the death toll appeared to be low. In Grenada, officials reported three deaths from the storm, two of them in Carriacou.
Officials said the Category 4 storm had knocked out the power supply on the islands, while damaged roads had cut off some of Carriacou and Petite Martinique’s roughly 9,000 residents. Nearly a third of Grenada’s water supply had been disrupted, according to the National Water and Sewerage Authority.
A car driving past a collapsed power line as Hurricane Beryl hits Kingston, Jamaica, on Wednesday.Credit...Marco Bello/Reuters
Hurricane Beryl moved past Jamaica on Wednesday and headed toward the Cayman Islands after carving a path of destruction through the Caribbean, killing at least seven people, destroying houses and snapping trees in half.
The hurricane first hit Carriacou, a small island north of Grenada, on Monday morning where it flattened the island in just half an hour, while also causing extreme damage to neighboring Petite Martinique. Rescue crews departed Grenada on Tuesday morning to deliver supplies to both islands and assess the destruction.
Carriacou is known for its coral reefs and diving spots, while people on Petite Martinique are mostly involved in fishing and boat building. The two islands have a combined population of roughly 6,000, according to government data.
On Wednesday morning, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands braced themselves as Beryl, a Category 4, headed its way.
The storm was an anomaly in what has already been an unusually busy storm season, which extends until the end of November. When it developed into a Category 4 storm on Sunday, it was the third major hurricane ever in the Atlantic Ocean in June — and the first time a Category 4 materialized this early there in the season.
The storm continued to set records, becoming the first ever Atlantic storm to grow into a Category 5 this early in the season, according to Philip Klotzbach, a Colorado State University meteorologist who specializes in tropical cyclones.
The storm’s rapid strengthening was a direct result of above-average sea surface temperatures, as well as a harbinger of what might be coming this hurricane season. A hurricane that intensifies faster can be more dangerous because it gives people in areas projected to be affected less time to prepare and evacuate.
Thursday
Image
Credit...Joe Raedle/Getty Images
People clean up after Hurricane Beryl in Old Harbor, Jamaica.
Video
CreditCredit...Gannon Rutty via Storyful
Storm surge rushes over a pier in East End, Cayman Islands.
Image
Credit...Marco Bello/Reuters
A worker uses heavy machinery to clean up sand and debris from a road near the airport in Kingston, Jamaica.
Wednesday
Video
CreditCredit...
Strong winds batter palm trees in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Image
Credit...Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Flooded streets in Kingston, Jamaica.
Image
Credit...Orlando Barria/EPA, via Shutterstock
A destroyed dock at a marina in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic.
Image
Credit...Lucanus Ollivierre/Associated Press
Residents of Union Island evacuated to Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Video
CreditCredit...Latin America News Agency via Associated Press
Boats are piled on top of one another in Bridgetown, Barbados.
Image
Credit...Raquel Cunha/Reuters
Workers install wood boards on a building’s windows ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Beryl, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Image
Credit...Orlando Barria/EPA, via Shutterstock
A beach covered in garbage after the passage of Hurricane Beryl, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Image
Credit...Joe Raedle/Getty Images
People purchasing supplies at a grocery store ahead of Hurricane Beryl’s landfall.
Image
Credit...Joe Raedle/Getty Images
A resident places cinderblocks along a roof before Hurricane Beryl arrives in Kingston.
Image
Credit...Paola Chiomante/Reuters
Boats moved from the water for safety, ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Beryl, in Punta Allen, Mexico.
Tuesday
Image
Credit...Arthur Daniel/Reuters
Destruction in Petite Martinique, Grenada.
Image
Credit...Curlan Chrissey Campbell/Reuters
A damaged house missing its roof in Sauteurs, Grenada.
Image
Credit...Samir Aponte/Reuters
A resident removing mud after floods swept through Cumanacoa, Venezuela.
Video
CreditCredit...@moises.arias06/Instagram via Reuters
Waves crashing on the coast of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Image
Credit...Ricardo Mazalan/Associated Press
Workers chopping an uprooted tree in St. James, Barbados.
Video
CreditCredit...The Agency For Public Information St. Vincent and the Grenadines via Reuters
Residents walking amid the debris of damaged buildings in Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Image
Credit...National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
A satellite image shows Hurricane Beryl hurtling toward Jamaica.
Damaged outdoor furniture in Christ Church, Barbados.
Video
CreditCredit...Associated Press
Streets within Bay Garden, a popular attraction in Oistins, Barbados, were covered in debris.
Image
Credit...Ricardo Mazalan/Associated Press
Damaged fishing vessels clog a harbor after Hurricane Beryl passed through the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados.
Image
Credit...Gilbert Bellamy/Reuters
Long lines at a grocery store in Kingston, Jamaica.
Image
Credit...Andrea De Silva/Reuters
Braving a walk down a pier in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Image
Credit...Marco Bello/Reuters
The airport in Piarco, Trinidad and Tobago, where a flight board showed several cancellations, and a leak in the roof closed off a portion of the floor.
Video
CreditCredit...Keshav Panthi, via Storyful
Strong winds and waves crashing onto Dover Beach in Christ Church, Barbados.
According to major forecasts, it looks like it’s going to be an above-average hurricane season. Judson Jones, a meteorologist for The New York Times, explains why.
In yet another dire warning about the coming Atlantic hurricane season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday predicted that this year could see between 17 to 25 named tropical cyclones, the most it has ever forecast in May for the Atlantic Ocean.
The NOAA forecast joins more than a dozen other recent projections from experts at universities, private companies and other government agencies that have predicted a likelihood of 14 or more named storms this season; many were calling for well over 20.
Rick Spinrad, the NOAA administrator, said at a news conference on Thursday morning that the agency’s forecasters believed eight to 13 of the named storms could become hurricanes, meaning they would include winds of at least 74 miles per hour. Those could include four to seven major hurricanes — Category 3 or higher — with winds of at least 111 m.p.h.
Image
Debris left from Hurricane Idalia in Florida’s Big Bend region last August. Idalia was one of the strongest storms of 2023.Credit...Zack Wittman for The New York Times
According to NOAA, there is an 85percent chance of an above-normal season and a 10 percent chance of a near-normal season, with a5 percent chance of a below-normal season. An average Atlantic hurricane season has 14 named storms, including seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes.
While it only takes one storm in a below-average season to devastate a community, having conditions conducive to almost twice the average amount of storms makes it more likely that North America will experience a tropical storm or, worse, a major hurricane.
There are 21 entries on this year’s official list of storm names, from Alberto to William. If that list is exhausted, the National Weather Service moves on to an alternative list of names, something it’s only had to do twice in its history.
Image
A scene of devastation after Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., in 2022.Credit...Damon Winter/The New York Times
NOAA typically issues a May forecast and then an updated forecast in August. Before Thursday, NOAA’s most significant May forecast was in 2010, when it forecast 14 to 23 named storms; that year, 19 ultimately formed before the end of the season. In 2020, the May forecast was for 13 to 19 named storms, but an updated forecast for August was even higher, with 19 to 25 named storms. That season ultimately saw 30 named storms.
The hurricane outlooks this year have been notably aggressive because of the unprecedented conditions expected.
Preparing for Hurricane Season
As forecasters look toward the official start of the season on June 1, they see combined circumstances that have never occurred in records dating to the mid-1800s: record warm water temperatures in the Atlantic and the potential formation of La Niña weather pattern.
Brian McNoldy, a researcher at the University of Miami who specializes in hurricane formation, said that without a previous example involving such conditions, forecasters trying to predict the season ahead could only extrapolate from previous outliers.
Experts are concerned by warm ocean temperatures.
“I think all systems are go for a hyperactive season,” said Phil Klotzbach, an expert in seasonal hurricane forecasts at Colorado State University.
The critical area of the Atlantic Ocean where hurricanes form is already abnormally warm just ahead of the start of the season. Benjamin Kirtman, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Miami, earlier described the conditions as “unprecedented,” “alarming” and an “out-of-bounds anomaly.”
Waters remain unusually warm in the Atlantic’s hurricane alley
Daily sea surface temperatures in the main area where hurricanes form
Over the past century, those temperatures have increased gradually. But last year, with an intensity that unnerved climate scientists, the waters warmed even more rapidly in a region of the Atlantic where most hurricanes form. This region, from West Africa to Central America, is hotter this year than it was before the start of last year’s hurricane season, which produced 20 named storms.
The current temperatures in the Atlantic are concerning because they mean the ocean is poised to provide additional fuel to any storm that forms. Even if the surface suddenly cools, the temperatures below the surface, which are also remarkably above average, are expected to reheat the surface temperatures rapidly.
These warmer temperatures can give energy to the formation of storms — and help sustain them. Sometimes, if no other atmospheric conditions hinder a storm’s growth, they can intensify more rapidly than usual, jumping hurricane categories in less than a day.
Combined with the rapidly subsiding El Niño weather pattern in early May, the temperatures are leading to mounting confidence among forecasting experts that there will be an exceptionally high number of storms this hurricane season.
A parting El Niño and a likely La Niña are increasing confidence in the forecasts.
El Niño is caused by changing ocean temperatures in the Pacific and affects weather patterns globally. When it is strong, it typically thwarts the development and growth of storms. Last year, the warm ocean temperatures in the Atlantic blunted El Niño’s effect to do that. If El Niño subsides, as forecasters expect, there won’t be much to blunt the season this time.
Forecasters specializing in the ebbs and flows of El Niño, including Michelle L’Heureux with the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center, are pretty confident not only that El Niño will subside but that there is a high likelihood — 77 percent — that La Niña will form during the peak of hurricane season.
The system could throw a curve ball, she said, but at this point in the spring, things are evolving as forecasters have anticipated. A La Niña weather pattern would already have them looking toward an above-average year. The possibility of a La Niña, combined with record sea surface temperatures this hurricane season, is expected to create a robust environment this year for storms to form and intensify.
![[object Object]](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/08/02/multimedia/04Beryl-carousel3/04Beryl-carousel3-square640-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp)
Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines![[object Object]](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/08/02/multimedia/04Beryl-carousel3/02Beryl-Photos-pklf-threeByTwoMediumAt2X.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment