Hurricane Beryl, the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic, tore through a new swath of the Caribbean, devastating islands and flooding communities. The hurricane then continued toward Mexico on Thursday.
In Jamaica, residents emerging from their shelters saw a landscape of devastated farmland, damaged homes and roads covered with fallen electricity poles and foliage.
“The whole place is a hodgepodge,” Steve Taylor, a resident of the low-lying coastal village of Mitchell Town, told a local television station.
St. Elizabeth, an agricultural region known as the country’s breadbasket, was hit particularly hard. “Southwest St. Elizabeth is facing complete devastation,” said Jamaica’s Minister of Agriculture, Floyd Green.
Still, Jamaican officials surveying the devastation said that as terrible as Hurricane Beryl was, it could have been worse.
“The damage was not what we expected, and we are very grateful for that,” said Prime Minister Andrew Holness. told CNN on Thursday. “I think Jamaica has been spared the worst.”
So far, officials said, the death toll in the Caribbean appeared low, with about eight reported dead. The storm made its first landfall Monday in Grenada.
On Thursday, as the storm moved west, it lost some of its strength, now reaching Category 2 strength, with winds of up to 115 mph (185 kph).
With dangerous wind gusts, storm surges and heavy rainfall expected, authorities in Mexico were taking no chances.
The government said Thursday it had deployed more than 13,000 workers and members of the armed forces, along with rescue dogs, and set up mobile kitchens and water treatment plants in Quintana Roo, a southern Caribbean state that could be the first to feel the storm’s effects.
Evacuations were ordered in Tulum and Felipe Carrillo Puerto, areas authorities feared would be hit hardest by the storm’s force.
In Cancun, a popular holiday destination, yachts were gathered in an inland waterway for protection.
Anders Aasen and his family arrived at Cancun International Airport in Mexico on Thursday after nearly 24 hours of travel from Norway. They were unaware that a hurricane would also be arriving there within hours.
“At the hotel they didn’t give us any information about what was going to happen or what we should do,” said Mr. Aasen, 42, an entrepreneur who had planned to travel to Cancun and Tulum with his wife and three children. He said the family had already spent $20,000 on their trip.
Most tourists arriving at the airport on Thursday said they had not been informed about the storm in advance, and neither travel agents nor hotels had informed them about the safety measures.
In the Gulf of Mexico, Shell Oil said it was evacuating non-essential workers from a floating oil platform. The platform, called Perdido, is located about 200 miles south of Galveston, Texas, in about 8,000 feet of water. The company said there were “no other impacts to our production” from the hurricane.
Forecasters predicted that Mexico would be hit not once, but twice by the hurricane. It was on track to first hit the Yucatán Peninsula on Friday, and then, after crossing the Gulf of Mexico, the coast of the northern state of Tamaulipas.
Residents of the Cayman Islands largely breathed a sigh of relief after Category 3 Hurricane Beryl passed by early Thursday morning without making landfall. There were no reports of significant damage, injuries or fatalities. However, officials said they were still assessing the full effects of the storm.
The storm was the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic, said Philip Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University who specializes in tropical cyclones. The previous record was set by Hurricane Emily on July 17, 2005, he said.
Meteorologists say the rapid intensification of Hurricane Beryl was a direct result of above-average sea surface temperatures and was a harbinger of what could be a particularly difficult hurricane season.
In Jamaica, power and water were slowly being restored to the areas hardest hit: the eastern and southern parishes of Kingston, the capital; Portland and other neighborhoods. More than 60 percent of customers were without water and electricity Thursday morning, representatives of major providers told local news outlets. Cell phone service was still unavailable in large parts of the country.
Jamaica’s Sangster International Airport, in the tourist area of Montego Bay, is expected to reopen later on Thursday, the transport minister said in a statementbut the main airport, Norman Manley, remained closed for repairs but was expected to reopen on Friday.
The government said public sector workers could return to work, while some commercial establishments have recalled their employees. The Central Bank of Jamaica advised it would remain closed until Friday. Schools have been closed for the summer.
Rebuilding proved to be a much tougher task on islands that were hit even harder by the storm, particularly Grenada. Satellite images showed roofless homes and buildings in ruins, with the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique bearing the brunt of the storm. Officials said about 98 percent of buildings there had been destroyed.
In Argyle, a popular tourist town with dozens of vacation rentals in Carriacou, before-and-after images showed structures reduced to rubble. The island’s docks, usually filled with boats, were empty. And along Carriacou’s northeastern coastline, the damage extended far inland, satellite images showed.
Tourism is one of the island’s main sources of income. The airport and some hotels reopened as cleanup efforts began, according to the Grenada Hotel and Tourism Association.
Lynsey Chutel, Daphne Ewing-Chow, Johnny Diaz And Ricardo Hernández Ruiz contributed to the reporting.
