2024-07-14 14:16:02
By Jesus Vasquez
Hundreds of tourists have been evacuated and dozens of flights have been suspended on Thursday, hours before Hurricane Beryl is set to hit the Mexican Caribbean coast.
Beryl, a Category 2 hurricane on a five-point scale, was located 345 km from Tulum, a coastal tourist town about two hours from the popular resort of Cancun, according to the latest report from the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC).
The hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 175 km/h and which has left seven dead in its wake across the Caribbean islands and Venezuela, is expected to hit Mexican territory between Thursday night and Friday morning. It will then move into the Yucatan Peninsula, the NHC said.
Some 100 domestic and international flights scheduled between Thursday and Friday have been cancelled at Cancun airport, the main air terminal in the Mexican Caribbean.
In Tulum, where the government ordered the suspension of activities from 9:00 p.m. GMT on Thursday, residents reinforced the protection of their businesses with wooden boards, while supermarkets closed their doors, an AFP team observed.
Meanwhile, the airport in Tulum – a municipality with about 47,000 inhabitants – suspended operations in the afternoon.
Several tourists were evacuated from hotels along the coastline and others were trying to leave the impact zone by bus. However, some were still enjoying a sunny day on the beach before taking refuge in their accommodation.
“Our flight was cancelled and we had to pay for two additional nights (in a hotel). We are a bit scared but we are convinced that people are prepared and know what to do,” said Virginia Rebollar, a Mexican tourist who travelled with three other family members.
Civil Protection also ordered the halt of activities in Felipe Carillo Puerto and José María Morelos, in the state of Quintana Roo, the area where the greatest effects of the cyclone are expected.
The Mexican army has deployed some 8,000 troops in Tulum and announced that it has food supplies and 34,000 liters of purified water to distribute among the population.
– Double impact in Mexico –
The Mexican government estimates that Beryl will hit the Mexican coast as a Category 1 hurricane and will move over the Yucatan Peninsula before entering the Gulf of Mexico.
It is expected to gain strength at sea and re-enter Mexican territory in the northern state of Tamaulipas, bordering Texas (United States).
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said earlier that a contingency plan for that area is also being prepared.
Beryl is the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, which runs from early June to late November, and has impressed experts with its intensity over the weekend.
The U.S. weather service temporarily classified it as a Category 5 hurricane, making it the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded.
Scientists believe that climate change, by warming ocean waters, is making these storms more likely to intensify rapidly.
– Damage in the Caribbean –
Beryl left at least seven dead in its wake, with three fatalities in Grenada, where the storm made landfall on Monday; one in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and three in Venezuela, according to local authorities.
Power outages and flooding were reported in the Cayman Islands.
Beryl left more than 400,000 residents without power on Wednesday as it passed through Jamaica.
King Charles III said he was “deeply saddened” by the destruction left by the storm, according to a statement issued by Buckingham Palace on Thursday.
Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said the island of Carriacou was largely cut off, with homes, telecommunications and fuel facilities wiped out.
His counterpart from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, said that “90% of the houses” had been destroyed on Union Island and warned that rebuilding would be a huge effort.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warned in late May that the season was shaping up to be extraordinary, with the possibility of four to seven Category 3 hurricanes or higher.
These forecasts are linked in particular to the expected development of the La Niña weather phenomenon, as well as to very high temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean, according to NOAA.
bur-yug/nn/axm/dga
© Agence France-Presse
