Hurricane Beryl roars by Jamaica after killing at least 7 people

Hurricane Beryl was roaring by Jamaica Wednesday, bringing fierce winds and heavy rain after the powerful Category 4 storm earlier killed at least seven people and caused significant damage in the southeast Caribbean.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Beryl's eyewall was "brushing the south coast of Jamaica."

Wind-whipped rain pounded the island for hours as residents heeded authorities' call to shelter until the storm had passed. Power was knocked out in much of the capital.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness said on Wednesday afternoon that nearly 500 people were placed in shelters.

By evening, he said that Jamaica has not seen the "worst of what could possibly happen."

"We can do as much as we can do, as humanly possible, and we leave the rest in the hands of God," Holness said.

Several roadways in the country's interior settlements were impacted by fallen trees and utility poles, while some communities in the northern section were without electricity, according to the government's information service.

Kingston resident Pauline Lynch said that she had stockpiled food and water in anticipation of the storm's arrival. With wind already driving rain, Lynch said, "I have no control over what is coming so I just have to pray that all people of Jamaica is safe and we don't suffer no deaths, no loss."

By midday, winds already howled in the capital, turning the sea into churning whitecaps as Beryl's eye scraped by the island's southern coast.

"We are very concerned about a wide variety of life threatening impacts in Jamaica," including storm surge, high winds and flash flooding, said Jon Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather.

Porter called Beryl "the strongest and most dangerous hurricane threat that Jamaica has faced, probably, in decades."

A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, and the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancun. Beryl was forecast to weaken slightly over the next day or two, but still be at or near major-hurricane strength when it passes near the Cayman Islands on Thursday and into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula late Thursday or Friday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

Jamaica was under a state of emergency as the island was declared a disaster zone hours before the impact of Beryl. Holness said that the disaster zone declaration will remain for the next seven days.

An evacuation order was in place for communities across Jamaica that are prone to flooding and landslides. Holness urged Jamaicans to move away from low-lying areas.

Late Monday, Beryl became the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic and peaked at winds of 270 kilometers per hour (kph) Tuesday before weakening to a still-destructive Category 4. Late Wednesday night, the storm's center was about 905 km east-southeast of Tulum, Mexico. It had maximum sustained winds of 215 kph and was moving west-northwest at 32 kph. Hurricane strength winds extended 45 miles from the center.

Jamaica's southern coast, where Kingston is located, was expected to bear the brunt of Beryl with coastal water levels rising to 1.8 to 2.7 meters above normal tide levels in some area.

(Cover: An empty street as people remain indoors when Hurricane Beryl passes through, Kingston, Jamaica, July 3, 2024. /CFP)