By Zahra Burton and Harold Isaac
KINGSTON/PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) -Hurricane Beryl churned menacingly over Jamaica on Wednesday afternoon, after uprooting trees, ripping off roofs and destroying farms as it forged a destructive, water-soaked path across smaller Caribbean islands over the past couple days.
The death toll from the powerful Category 4 hurricane rose to at least nine, but it is widely expected to rise as communications come back online across drenched islands damaged by flooding and deadly winds.
"Everything is destroyed, there's nothing else in Palm Island," said Katie Rosiak, the general manager of the Palm Island Resort in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, one of the hardest-hit areas in the eastern Caribbean.
"We need some help for everybody," she said in a brief phone call, declining to confirm that a hotel employee had been killed.
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 extreme weather that confounds past experience.
In the Jamaican capital, Kingston, anxious motorists lined up at gas stations, as others stocked up on essential supplies.
"It is imperative that we remain calm," said Prime Minister Andrew Holness in a national address late on Tuesday. "Now's not a time to panic."
On Wednesday, residents appeared to heed his call.
"People are worried -- always shopping and buying things," said Andre, a salesperson in a local store, without giving his full name.
Jamaicans braced for electricity cuts later on Wednesday, according to a power company official, with roads near the coast already washed out as a steady rain continued to fall and winds picked up in the capital.
By midday on Wednesday, the well-defined eye of the spiraling hurricane was located about 45 miles (72 km) southeast of Kingston, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC), though its outer rings were already lashing much of the island with a population of nearly 3 million.
Beryl is packing maximum sustained winds of 140 miles per hour (225 kph).
The force of the winds is expected to weaken somewhat in next day or two, according to the NHC, though it cautioned that Beryl will remain at or near major hurricane strength as it moves on to the Cayman Islands.
"Life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides from heavy rainfall are expected over much of Jamaica and southern Haiti through today," the NHC said in a post, adding that dangerous winds and storm surge are also expected in the Cayman Islands through early Thursday.
The center added that a hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, as well as the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, including for the country's top beach resort Cancun.
'WE COULD NOT SLEEP'
Overnight in Haiti as Beryl's impact grew progressively stronger, residents anxiously awaited its full impact.
"We were not comfortable. We could not sleep normally with the wind, the water. Many people slept in the yard," said Pouchon Jean-Francois, who lives in an improvised camp in Port-au-Prince.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was injured as she surveyed an area south of Beryl on Tuesday night, where the Manzanares River in Sucre state burst its banks.
President Nicolas Maduro confirmed the injuries caused by a falling tree to his second-in-command, along with head injuries suffered by senior officials accompanying her, after intense rainfall struck inland from the country's Caribbean coastline.
On Tuesday night, Maduro told state television that three people had died and four were missing in the area, along with more than 8,000 homes damaged by torrential rains, including at least 400 destroyed.
The unusually early hurricane strengthened at a record pace, which scientists argue is almost certainly fueled by climate change.
Beryl is the 2024 Atlantic season's first hurricane and the earliest storm on record to reach the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson five-stage scale. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has forecast a large number of major hurricanes in an "extraordinary" season this year.
Additional confirmed fatalities so far include at least three in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a senior official told Reuters, where Union Island has suffered severe destruction of over 90% of buildings.
In Grenada, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell described "Armageddon-like" conditions with no power and widespread destruction, while also confirming three deaths.
Beyond near-term impact in Jamaica and Haiti, the NHC warned that Beryl will likely make landfall on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula as early as Thursday night.
In Cancun, officials said supplies of wooden boards used to protect doors and windows were dwindling as locals and tourists prepared for Beryl's arrival.
Laura Velazquez, head of Mexico's civil protection agency, encouraged tourists in Cancun and nearby Tulum to hunker down in hotel basements once the hurricane approaches, in comments to local broadcaster Milenio.
(Reporting by Zahra Burton in Kingston and Harold Isaac in Port-au-Prince; Additional reporting by David Alire Garcia in Mexico City, Deisy Buitrago in Caracas and Robertson S. Henry in St. Vincent; Writing by Sharon Singleton; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Bill Berkrot and Sandra Maler)
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