The storm is expected to reach hurricane strength again in the Gulf of Mexico after killing at least 11 people in the Caribbean.
Tropical Storm Beryl is expected to strengthen as he heads towards the US state of Texas after blazing a deadly trail across the Caribbean.
The storm is expected to make landfall in Texas on Sunday night, two days after hitting Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
Beryl has been downgraded to a tropical storm, but is expected to strengthen again to a hurricane as it travels over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
While no deaths were reported in Mexico, Beryl killed at least 11 people across the Caribbean after its strong winds and heavy rains hit Jamaica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and northern Venezuela.
As it swept across the region, the storm quickly grew into a Category 4 hurricane before briefly reaching Category 5 intensity, according to the US-based National Hurricane Center (NHC).
That made it the most violent storm ever recorded at the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, a reality that scientists say has been fueled by human-caused climate change.
Beryl is expected to make landfall in Texas as a Category 1 hurricane somewhere between the city of Brownsville and north of Corpus Christi, NHC. senior expert Jack Beven told the Associated Press news agency.
However, he warned that the storm could strengthen further “if Beryl remains over water for longer” than expected.
He said the storm could see its winds increase to 27 to 37 kilometers per hour (17 to 23 mph) over the next 24 hours.
The agency warned of storms in northeastern Mexico and along the Texas coast, as well as life-threatening flash floods and rip currents.
Beryl caused material damage and power outages in Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula, the country’s main tourist destination.
4 a.m. CDT July 6 Top Tropical Storm Messages #Beryl:
It is forecast to strengthen later this weekend in the Gulf of Mexico and become a #hurricane again before impacting parts of northeastern Mexico and the Texas coast overnight Sunday into Monday.
Last: pic.twitter.com/Q9lBmHgbd2
– National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) July 6, 2024
Hundreds of tourists were evacuated from hotels along the coast as the storm approached, with the military moving around 8,000 soldiers to Tulum with food supplies and 34,000 liters of purified water.
At Cancún airport, around 100 domestic and international flights scheduled between Thursday and Friday were canceled.
The storm moved along the coast of northern Venezuela, where three people died.
Three more people were killed in Grenada, where two islands – Carriacou and neighboring Petite Martinique – were hardest hit.
Tevin Andrews, the islands’ minister, on Friday appealed to the United Nations and humanitarian organizations for “anything that allows a human being to survive.”
Neighboring St. Vincent and the Grenadines was also badly hit, Simon Springett, the U.N.’s top humanitarian official for the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados, told the AP. At least three more people were killed in the country.
Two people were also killed in Jamaica, where thousands remained without power.
Atypically warm waters – which fuel large storms – have been largely blamed for Beryl’s intensity.
North Atlantic waters remain between 1-3 degrees Celsius (1.8-5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than normal, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
