STORY: Hurricane Beryl slammed into Jamaica Wednesday as a powerful Category 4 storm after causing major destruction across smaller Caribbean islands over the past couple of days.
Power outages were widespread across Jamaica, while some roads near the coast were washed out.
Authorities say at least 10 people have died, and the tally is likely to increase as communications come back across the islands.
Director of the National Hurricane Center, Michael Brennan:
"Very dangerous conditions ongoing now in Jamaica and they are going to continue for the next several hours. Beryl is centered about 265 miles to the east, southeast of Grand Cayman. So the Cayman Islands are surely next in line for seeing significant impacts. And again, Beryl is moving west, northwest pretty quickly at about 18 miles per hour."
The loss of life and damage wrought by Beryl underscore the consequences of a warmer Atlantic Ocean, which scientists cite as a telltale sign of human-caused climate change fueling more extreme weather.
Phone footage shot in Grenada showed destroyed houses and debris from Hurricane Beryl.
The Prime Minister of Grenada said there was almost "complete destruction" of the electrical grid on one of the country's islands, Carriacou.
Beryl is the 2024 Atlantic season's first hurricane and the earliest storm on record to reach a Category 5.
Further west, in Mexico's tourist epicenter of Cancun, an environmental agency worked to gather eggs from sea turtles' nests for their protection, as the city, and the wider Yucatan peninsula, lies in Beryl's predicted path.
Cancun's airport was flooded with tourists hoping to catch last flights out before the storm arrives.
Mexico's defense ministry has opened around 120 storm shelters, and asked visitors to follow instructions from authorities in case they were ordered to go to designated shelters.
