The worst of Hurricane Beryl bypassed Jamaica. However, it left a trail of destruction and is now bearing down on the Cayman Islands
At least one person died in Jamaica on 03JUL – a woman in Hanover Parish (between Negril and Montego Bay) was said to have been killed by a tree falling on her home - as the early-season storm pushed westward.
"It's terrible. Everything's gone. I'm in my house and scared," said Amoy Wellington, a 51-year-old cashier who lives in Top Hill, a rural farming community in Jamaica's southern St. Elizabeth parish, which includes Treasure Beach and Black River. "It's a disaster."
On its Twitter/X site, the Jamaica Gleaner said Beryl “has left a trail of devastation across the southern parishes of Manchester and St Elizabeth where infrastructure was severely impacted by the system's strong winds and driving rain.”
The eye of the hurricane slid more than 100 km south of Jamaica, sparing the country from what could have been an unmitigated disaster. Still, the storm reached winds of 140 mph (225 km/hr), one of the strongest to impact Jamaica in more than 15 years, CNN reports.
Beryl is now a Category 3 storm but was a Category 5 hurricane a few days ago, marking the earliest Category 5 storm in the Atlantic Ocean in recorded history. Beryl is approaching the Cayman Islands and is forecast to remain a hurricane until it makes landfall on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on 05JUL.
On 04JUL, the National Hurricane Center in the U.S. warned of high winds, damaging winds, and a dangerous storm surge in the Cayman Islands for later in the day. The government of Canada’s travel warning system is urging Canadians to avoid non-essential travel to the Cayman Islands and the Yucatan region for now.
Air Canada has travel advisories for 04JUL flights to Montego Bay and Grand Cayman Island, stating that the airline “has revised its ticketing policy to make it easier for customers travelling on an affected flight to make changes to their booking without penalty, space permitting."
The same advisories are for 05JUL for Tulum (TQO), CUN in Mexico, and MBJ and KIN in Jamaica. Air Canada has posted advisories for 06JUL for TQO and CUN.
WestJet also has advisories out for the Caribbean. Their website notes that the airline’s Hurricane/Tropical Storm promise has been announced and may cause delays or cancellations. “We advise all guests to check the status of their flights prior to leaving for the airport. Additional updates will be posted as they are available.”
WS has advisories out through O4JUL for MBJ and KIN, and advisories are posted through 05JUL for CUN.
The Toronto Pearson website showed several cancellations for Caribbean departures and arrivals for 04JUL, including AC 1830 to GCM and 1812 to CUN, as well as AC 1805 from MBJ to YYZ and AC 1831 from GCM to YYZ. It showed the Air Canada flight from YYZ to TQO was cancelled for 05JUL.
Sunwing flight 733 from MBJ to YYZ was also cancelled on the Pearson site.
Of course, hurricane season has just started, and some experts say they’re extremely worried about what might happen when Atlantic Ocean waters get even warmer.
The Jamaica woman’s death is in addition to seven or more reported fatalities from earlier in the week in Venezuela and the Windward Islands of the Caribbean, where Beryl did immense damage to parts of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, part of Grenada. Beryl was a Category 5 hurricane earlier this week, marking the earliest date in recorded history that a Category 5 hurricane has formed in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), alongside the CHTA Education Foundation and the national hotel and tourism associations, have launched an urgent appeal for support in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl.
Michelle Forbes, the St. Vincent and Grenadines director of the National Emergency Management Organization, told the Globe and Mail that Hurricane Beryl damaged about 95% of homes in Mayreau and Union Island.
“Union Island is in a terrible state after Beryl passed,” local resident Katrina Coy said in a video message. “Literally, almost the whole island is homeless.”
Grenada’s prime minister, Dickon Mitchell, visited Carriacou this week and described “Armageddon-like” scenes of “almost total destruction,” The Guardian reports.
Three people were reported killed in Grenada and Carriacou and another in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said. Three other deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where four people were missing, officials said.
