Hurricane Beryl neared Jamaica as a powerful Category 4 storm on Wednesday, after flattening homes and devastating agriculture on smaller islands in the eastern Caribbean, killing at least seven people and creating “Armageddon-like” conditions in Grenada.
The hurricane was about 300 km east-southeast of the Jamaican capital of Kingston earlier today, according to the US National Hurricane Centre, packing maximum sustained winds of 230 km/h.
“Beryl is expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surges to Jamaica on Wednesday and the Cayman Islands Wednesday night and Thursday,” the hurricane center said in an advisory.
A hurricane warning is in effect for both places.
Hurricane conditions are expected to reach the coast of Jamaica about midday local time, with tropical storm-strength winds beginning in the late morning, making outside preparations difficult or dangerous, it said.
Beryl, the 2024 Atlantic season’s first hurricane and the earliest storm on record to reach the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, felled power lines and unleashed flash floods across smaller islands.
