Mexico: “Red alert” due to increasingly strong storm – DW – 05.07.2024

Due to the deadly Hurricane Beryl, Mexican authorities issued a “red alert” for the country’s most popular tourist destinations on Thursday evening.

The storm, which weakened slightly from its initial Category 5 strength on Wednesday, increased in speed and winds over the Gulf of Mexico as it approached the Mexican coast.

According to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), the storm is expected to make landfall on the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula early Friday morning as a Category 3. The agency warned of destructive waves and a dangerous storm surge.

Beryl is the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season and, at its peak, was the earliest Category 5 storm on record. But this could be just the beginning, as the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an “exceptional” storm season this year.

Scientists say human-caused climate change is leading to extreme weather.

Mexico prepares for Beryl

The “red alert level” means that the storm poses the highest danger.

Mexican authorities urged people to stay in their homes or seek shelter as Beryl approached popular tourist destinations such as Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, Tulum and Puerto Morelos. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged people to pay attention to their own safety.

“No hesitation. Material things can be brought back. The most important thing is life,” the president wrote on the social media platform X.

He also said this could be a boon for Tulum, a sleepy resort town that has grown in recent years to about 50,000 permanent residents and at least as many tourists per day.

“Everyone is homeless” – Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Beryl has wreaked havoc on the Caribbean islands this week.

In Jamaica, winds ripped apart buildings, uprooted trees and paralyzed power grids.

“We are happy to be alive and happy that the damage was not greater,” said Joseph Patterson, a beekeeper from the southwestern town of Bogue in Jamaica. He spoke of downed power lines, roads blocked by debris and “tremendous damage” to farms.

Beryl had previously devastated St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada.

Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said in a radio interview that the country’s Union Island had been “razed to the ground” by Beryl. “Everyone is homeless… Reconstruction will be a herculean task.”

The situation is “Armageddon-like,” Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said in a video message on Tuesday. “There is no electricity. Houses and buildings are almost completely destroyed,” he said, pointing to impassable roads due to downed power lines and destroyed gas stations that limit supplies.

So far, at least eight people have died as a result of the storm and several are missing.

mk/kb (Reuters, AP, DPA)