Jamaica braces for Hurricane Beryl as death toll rises to seven: Live updates

Hurricane Beryl is barreling toward Jamaica as a Category 4 storm with 155mph winds after charting a deadly path through Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines, destroying buildings and killing at least seven.

Beryl intensified to the earliest Category 5 storm recorded in the Atlantic overnight before weakening back to Category 4 on Tuesday. The storm made landfall in the Windward Islands on Monday, where it “flattened” Carriacou Island within half an hour, Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said.

Hurricane Beryl has killed at least seven people: Three in Grenada, three in northern Venezuela and one in St Vincent and the Grenadines. One of the victims died in Grenada’s capital after a tree fell on their home, Mitchell said.

This evening, the Category 4 storm will bring up to three feet of storm surge to Hispaniola.

Hurricane Beryl will reach Jamaica, which is now under a Hurricane Warning, on Wednesday. Residents of the Cayman Islands are also bracing for Hurricane Beryl to hit on Thursday night. The storm will likely maintain strength as it travels.

The Category 4 hurricane also has the potential to hit Texas over the weekend, according to projections from the National Weather Service .