An 80-year-old man lost his life on Wednesday in Jamaica when a wall at the back of his property in the Back Up district of Resource, Manchester, collapsed during the passage of Hurricane Beryl.
The man, Stanley Castle, lived alone in a board structure that lost its roof during the hurricane’s onslaught, according to the Jamaica Observer.
The elderly man is the third reported fatality in Jamaica from Hurricane Beryl.
Tragedy also struck in Hanover, where a woman died after a tree fell on her house during the storm. In Kingston, a 26-year-old man is presumed dead after being swept away by floodwaters while playing football with friends on Wednesday evening.
These incidents bring Beryl’s total confirmed fatalities to at least 12.
The storm has claimed lives across the Caribbean, with three fatalities reported in Grenada and Carriacou, three in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and three in northern Venezuela, where at least four people remain missing following floods triggered by heavy rain.
Impact on Cayman Islands and Mexico
Hurricane Beryl passed just south of Grand Cayman Island early Thursday, sparing residents from serious damage but causing widespread power outages. The storm strengthened back into a Category 3 hurricane later that day as it churned toward Mexico but weakened before making landfall.
According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Beryl made landfall just east of Tulum on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula shortly after 6 a.m. ET on Friday, with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. These winds dropped to 100 mph shortly after, and were down to 85 mph by 11 a.m. ET, making Beryl a Category 1 storm.
“Rapid weakening is expected as Beryl moves farther inland and crosses the Yucatan Peninsula today, but slow re-intensification is expected once Beryl moves back over the Gulf of Mexico,” the NHC said in its 11 a.m. ET update.
In anticipation of Beryl’s arrival, the Mexican government issued a “red alert,” urging residents to stay in their homes or seek shelter. Additionally, efforts were made to evacuate sea turtle eggs from the beaches to protect them from the storm’s impact.
