Hurricane Beryl Approaches Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula
By Circles Robinson
HAVANA TIMES – The powerful Hurricane Beryl is only hours away from reaching the Yucatan Peninsula. At 8 p.m. (ET) winds were clocked at 110 mph (175 kph). The center was located at 180 miles (295 kms) east-southeast of Tulum, Mexico.
Over the past days, Beryl has damaged or destroyed 95% of homes on a pair of islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, caused large scale destruction on outlying islands of Grenada, jumbled fishing boats in Barbados and ripped off roofs in Jamaica before rumbling past the Cayman Islands early Thursday, reported Associated Press.
Evacuations to shelters have been underway on Mexico’s Caribbean coast where small coastal communities are threatened by sea surge.
The head of Mexico’s civil defense agency, Laura Velazquez, said Thursday that Beryl is expected to make a landing early Friday in a relatively unpopulated stretch south of Tulum.
Storm surges related to Hurricane Beryl were expected today on the eastern Cuban coasts as well as around Cape San Antonio on the islands far west.
After Beryl whips through the Yucatan, weaking as occurs over land, it may regain hurricane strength when crossing the Gulf of Mexico en route to a new landing in northeastern Mexico or southern Texas