The eye of Hurricane Beryl brushed the south coast of Jamaica on Wednesday whipping the island with high winds and heavy rain for hours By evening the
The eye of Hurricane Beryl brushed the south coast of Jamaica on Wednesday, whipping the island with high winds and heavy rain for hours. By evening, the country’s prime minister said the country had yet to see the worst of it.
‘We can do as much as we can do, as humanly possible, and we leave the rest in the hands of God’, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said.
The storm knocked out power to Kingston and some communities on the northern part of the island, thanks to downed utility poles and trees.
Before Beryl, a Category 4 storm that has so far killed seven people, arrived in Jamaica’s capital city, people could be seen boarding windows and pulling boats from the water.
‘There are going to be multiple life-threatening hazards that are going to play out over the next 6 to 12 hours across Jamacia’, said U.S. National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan.
Conditions include strong wind gusts and storm surge of 0.3 to 2.7 meters over typical tides with possible destructive waves atop it. Ten to 20 centimeters of rain will pelt most of the country, maxing at 30 centimeters in some areas, which could cause mudslides and flash flooding.
People lounge on the beach as the sun sets ahead of Hurricane Beryl’s expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, July 3, 2024.
‘Plan to shelter in place for the remainder of the day well into tonight’, Brennan added for those living in Jamaica.
‘Jamaica must take this hurricane seriously. I am now declaring the whole of Jamaica to be a disaster area .
