Tulum, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Mexico near the resort of Tulum as a Category 2 storm on Friday morning, whipping trees and knocking out power as it came ashore after leaving a trail of destruction in the eastern Caribbean.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Beryl is expected to quickly weaken to a tropical storm as it crosses the Yucatan Peninsula before resurfacing in the Gulf of Mexico and likely regaining hurricane strength.
Once in the warm waters of the Gulf, Beryl is forecast to head toward northern Mexico, near the Texas border, an area that had already been deluged by Tropical Storm Alberto just a few weeks ago.
Once the first storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Beryl has spread destruction to Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados in recent days.
Shortly after making landfall, Beryl’s maximum wind speed decreased to 100 mph, according to the U.S. Hurricane Center.
Mexican authorities evacuated some tourists and residents from low-lying areas around the Yucatan peninsula ahead of landfall, but tens of thousands remained to weather the 100 mph winds and expected storm surge. Much of the area around Tulum is just a few meters above sea level.
The city was plunged into darkness as the storm knocked out power as it made landfall. Strong winds set off car alarms across the city.
Once a quiet, laid-back village, in recent years Tulum has grown with rampant development and now has around 50,000 permanent inhabitants and at least as many tourists per day. The resort now has its own international airport.
As of Friday morning, the center of the storm was about 25 kilometers north-northwest of Tulum and moving west-northwest at 15 mph, the hurricane center said.
On Friday, Beryl was expected to weaken as it crossed the Yucatan Peninsula and resurfaced in the Gulf of Mexico, where the surprisingly resilient storm could once again become a hurricane and make landfall near the Mexico-Texas border. next week.
As the wind began to blow over Tulum’s beaches, four-wheeled vehicles with megaphones rolled across the sand, telling people to get out. Tourists took photos of the rising waves, but the military encouraged them to leave.
Authorities across the Yucatán peninsula prepared shelters, evacuated some small outlying coastal communities and even displaced Sea turtle eggs on storm-threatened beaches. In Tulum, authorities closed everything and evacuated beachfront hotels.
Tourists were also taking precautions. Lara Marsters, 54, a therapist visiting Tulum from Boise, Idaho, said “this morning we woke up and filled all of our empty water bottles with tap water and put them in the freezer…so we’ll have water to flush. bathroom.”
“We expect power outages,” Marsters said. “Let’s hunker down and stay safe.”
But once Beryl resurfaces in the Gulf of Mexico a day later, forecasters say it is expected to reach hurricane strength again and could hit the US-Mexico border in Matamoros. This area was already drenched in June by Tropical Storm Alberto.
Velázquez said temporary storm shelters had been set up at schools and hotels, but efforts to evacuate some highly exposed villages – such as Punta Allen, which sits on a narrow strip of land south of Tulum – and Mahahual, further south – were only partially successful.
Previously, Beryl wreaked havoc in the Caribbean. The hurricane damaged or destroyed 95% of homes on two islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, confused fishing boats in Barbados, ripped off roofs and cut electricity in Jamaica.
On Union Island, part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a man who identified himself as Captain Baga described the impact of the storm, including how he filled two 2,000-gallon rubber water tanks in preparation.
“I tied them securely on six sides; and I saw the wind lift those tanks and carry them away – full of water,” he said Thursday. “I’m a sailor and I never believed the wind could do what I saw it do, if someone (had) told me If the wind could do that, I would have told them they lie!
The island was littered with debris from houses that appeared to have exploded.
Girlyn Williams and Jeremiah Forde were trying to salvage what they could Thursday around their home, where only a concrete foundation remained standing.
They ran from room to room during the storm as different parts of their home were destroyed. Eventually, they hid in a small space created by a rubber water tank that was wedged between the house and a concrete tank. Williams cut his leg in the confusion and needed six stitches.
Three people were killed in Grenada and Carriacou and another in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, authorities said. Three more deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where four people were missing, authorities said.
In the Pacific, Tropical Depression Aletta was located about 300 miles (485 kilometers) south-southeast of southernmost Baja California, with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 km/h), and was forecast to move away from land and dissipate over the weekend.
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Myers reported from Kingston, Jamaica. Associated Press writers Renloy Trail in Kingston, Jamaica; Mark Stevenson, María Verza and Mariana Martínez Barba in Mexico City; Coral Murphy Marcos in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Lucanus Ollivierre on Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, contributed to this report.
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