By Zahra Burton and Jose Cortes
KINGSTON / TULUM, Mexico (Reuters) -Hurricane Beryl took aim at some of Mexico's top tourist resorts on Thursday after churning past the Cayman Islands and belting Jamaica with winds that tore apart buildings and uprooted trees.
Beryl, now at Category 2 strength, has left behind a deadly trail of destruction across several smaller Caribbean islands over the past few days.
It had crossed over the Cayman Islands and was on a path to strike the Mexican beach resort of Tulum, on the Yucatan peninsula's eastern coast, on Thursday night or early Friday.
Cancun's international airport was packed with tourists hoping to catch the last flights out. Around 100 flights were canceled, the state's governor said on social media.
The unusually fierce, early hurricane was located about 200 miles (322 km) west of Grand Cayman, the largest of the three islands that make up the British territory, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Caymanian officials issued the all clear on Thursday after the storm spared them the worst.
"We had ever confidence that the Lord would hear our prayer, and I am absolutely delighted to say that he has delivered us yet another time," Premier Juliana O'Connor-Connolly said on Thursday.
Caribbean islands further east were less fortunate. Authorities say at least 11 people have died, a number that could rise, especially as communications are restored on islands devastated by extensive flooding and powerful winds.
"We're happy to be alive, happy that the damage was not more extensive," said Joseph Patterson, a bee keeper in the southwestern Jamaican town of Bogue. He described felled power lines, roads blocked with debris and "tremendous damage" to farms.
Beryl's center skirted Jamaica's southern coast, pummeling communities as a powerful Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale before weakening slightly later on Thursday.
There were two deaths in Jamaica related to the storm, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said in an interview on CBC on Thursday.
Still, most Jamaicans were "giving thanks," Holness said, after having "escaped the worst".
The storm's winds are expected to slow further over next day or two, but will likely remain at hurricane strength until it approaches Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
Beryl's maximum sustained winds had dipped to 110 mph (177 kph), and it was forecast to dump 4-6 inches (10-15 centimeters) of rain on Mexico's Yucatan late Thursday and into Friday, with as much as 10 inches in some places, the NHC said.
TOURISTS BEWARE
Mexico's top tourist destination Cancun is a short distance from Tulum, both located where Beryl is forecast to cross.
Around 3,000 tourists had been evacuated from Isla Mujeres back to the mainland near Cancun, the island's tourism director Jose Magana said.
Workers could be seen filling up sand bags and boarding up shop and hotel doors and windows.
Schools in the state of Quintana Roo were closed Thursday and Friday. Mexico's defense ministry opened around 120 storm shelters in the area, ahead of expected flooding.
Government workers in Cancun on Wednesday saved over 10,000 turtle eggs that were at risk of being swept away.
Residents in Tulum lined up at gas stations to fill their tanks and additional containers, while hotels and tourist complexes removed loose furniture and equipment.
Mexico's major oil platforms, most of which are clustered around the southern Gulf of Mexico's shallow waters, are not expected to be shut down or otherwise affected.
Offshore oil projects to the north, in U.S. territorial waters, could be hit, according to the hurricane's expected trajectory.
Chevron Corp said on Thursday that non-essential personnel from its Gulf of Mexico facilities, including workers at its Anchor platform, are being removed due to the approaching storm.
Beryl is the 2024 Atlantic season's first hurricane and at its peak earlier this week was the earliest Category 5 storm on record.
Earlier in the week, Beryl slammed into St. Vincent and the Grenadines and "flattened" Union Island, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves told local radio. More than 90% of buildings suffered extensive damages. Reconstruction in the area will require "a Herculean effort," Gonsalves added.
There were at least three confirmed fatalities on the island chain and crop damage was widespread, senior officials told Reuters.
In Grenada, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell had described "Armageddon-like" conditions following the hurricane's passage, while also confirming three deaths.
In Venezuela, at least three people had died and another four were listed as missing.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast a large number of major hurricanes in what it has predicted will be an "extraordinary" storm season this year. The season runs from the start of June to the end of November
Beryl's destructive power, coming so early in the hurricane season, underscores the consequences of a warmer Atlantic Ocean. Scientists say human-caused climate change is fueling extreme weather.
(Reporting by Zahra Burton in Kingston, José de Jesús Cortes and Raquel Cunha in Tulum, and Paola Chiomante in Cancun; Additional reporting by Brendan O'Boyle in Mexico City, Robertson Henry in St. Vincent and Natalia Siniawski in Gdansk; Writing by David Alire Garcia and Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Stephen Coates)
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