Hurricane Beryl is set to make landfall on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula early Friday, bringing damaging winds, a storm surge of up to six feet and life-threatening surf and rip currents, forecasters said.
The National Hurricane Center said that Beryl had weakened from a Category 3 to a strong Category 2 storm early Friday, but warned that it carried a serious, widespread risk.
“Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion,” the center said.
The hurricane is already blamed in nine deaths in Venezuela, Jamaica and the Windward Island nations of Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It caused severe damage to many homes in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials there said.
As of 3 a.m. ET, Beryl was 77 miles west of the Yucatán Peninsular, the Civil Protection Department in Yucatán said. The peninsular is under a hurricane warning and the storm is due to emerge in the Gulf of Mexico by Friday night.
Up to 10 inches of rain is expected with some flash flooding possible on the peninsula.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said landfall is projected for Tulum and urged people to move to higher ground or shelter elsewhere.
“Let’s not hesitate, material things can be recovered. The most important thing is life,” he said on X on Thursday night.
The storm had weakened Thursday to a Category 2 but restrengthened later to Category 3, and by 10 p.m. it had maximum sustained winds of 115 mph.
Hurricane warnings covered the coast of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancún, including the island of Cozumel, the hurricane center said.
Landfall is projected for Friday morning, but damaging winds and powerful waves produced by the large storm will hit the peninsula before then, forecasters said.
The storm is expected to weaken after landfall. It is forecast to go out into the Gulf of Mexico on Friday night and then to regain some strength. It will then move toward northeastern Mexico or southern Texas by the end of the weekend, according to the National Hurricane Center.
“There is an increasing risk of strong winds, storm surge, and heavy rainfall in portions of northeastern Mexico and southern Texas late this weekend,” the National Hurricane Center said.
Beryl’s formation and strength set records. Scientists say the process of rapid intensification is becoming more common as climate change increases sea surface temperatures.
It was the first Category 4 hurricane on record to form in June and the earliest Category 4 storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. Before Beryl, Hurricane Dennis was the earliest, having formed on July 8, 2005.
When Beryl strengthened to a Category 5 storm with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph this week, it became the strongest hurricane ever recorded in July.
American tourists in Mexico are hunkering down and hoping the storm’s damage is not as bad as expected, while flights in and out of the region remain canceled.
Stae and Wallace Hall of Fort Worth, Texas, are staying at an all-inclusive resort in Cancún, just 40 miles north of Tulum, where Beryl is expected to make landfall early Friday.
“The wind is picking up just a little,” Stae Hall told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth on Thursday. “They are starting to remove some of the light posts, they’re starting to take some of the cabanas down off of the beaches.”
Anita Luis, a tourist from Dallas, Texas, told Reuters: “We’re worried about the hurricane and not just for us, but all the people who are traveling. We just want to go back home safely and pray the same for everybody else, but we’re just stranded here.”
Anyone stuck in a resort looking for a stiff drink to calm their nerves as Beryl passes overhead may be disappointed: The Halls said their hotel had stopped serving alcohol by order of the Mexican government.
“I just have to realize I have no control,” Stae Hall said. “Go into prayer mode. We’re going to go up to the buffet, get some snacks, get some fruit, maybe play some games and just try to pretend nothing is happening.”
