Hurricane Beryl is forecast to devastate six US states, according to terrifying model.
The ferocious Category Five storm has already left six people dead and caused significant damage after 165mph winds lashed parts of the Caribbean.
Earlier models suggested the hurricane, which was heading toward Jamaica on Wednesday morning, could impact the United States over the weekend.
The National Hurricane Center has since officially added parts of Texas to the hurricane’s forecast cone, and warned residents in southern areas to prepare for heavy rain and gusty winds beginning Monday.
However, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky could also be swept into the storm’s path, according to a model presented by hurricane expert Dr. Levi Cowan.
Hurricane Beryl is forecast to hit six U.S. states, according to a terrifying model shown here by the pink line. Each of the different colored lines are spaghetti models depicting a possible storm path based on various meteorological factors.
At least five so-called spaghetti models now indicate the hurricane will hit the United States.
Spaghetti patterns are strands that show the potential path of tropical cyclones.
For Beryl, most of the five models impacting the U.S. show Texas in the line of fire, but an additional track suggests Louisiana could also see some impact, with a chance the storm could sweep across all six states.
“It really depends on where the hurricane is launching when it arrives on Friday. If it comes from the Yucatan Peninsula far enough north, it can continue to gain latitude and threaten the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, which could mean that northern Mexico or Texas and the US Gulf Coast could be threatened,” Dr Cowan said.
“But if it crosses lower, let’s say if it’s a weaker storm, then it will probably continue westward, toward eastern Mexico.”
Beryl’s path will be determined by the level of pressure over the southeast.
If this slows, the storm could move northward, which could spell disaster for the United States.
Gulf Coast residents are urged to be on the lookout for the record-breaking storm, which is the earliest Category 5 hurricane in the history of the Atlantic basin, the Caribbean and Central America.
The ferocious Category Five storm has already left six people dead and caused significant damage after 165mph winds lashed parts of the Caribbean.
The National Hurricane Center has since added parts of Texas to the hurricane forecast cone.
Jamaica was under a state of emergency after the island was declared a disaster area hours before Hurricane Beryl hit on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Beryl was roaring toward Jamaica as islanders scrambled to make preparations.
In Kingston, people boarded up their windows, fishermen pulled their boats out of the water before sitting around a table to play dominoes by a bay, and workers took down billboards along roads to protect them from expected strong winds.
A hurricane watch has been issued for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac. Beryl is forecast to weaken slightly over the next few days.
However, it is forecast to reach or be near major hurricane strength when it passes near or over Jamaica, near the Cayman Islands on Thursday and toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Jamaica was under a state of emergency after the island was declared a disaster area hours before Hurricane Beryl hit.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said the disaster declaration will remain in effect for the next seven days. Holness also announced an island-wide curfew between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
Security forces will be fully mobilized to maintain public order and assist in the event of a disaster.
People walk among damaged properties in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, on Union Island, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
‘Once the hurricane has passed, security forces have developed strategic plans to counter any potential threat of looting or any other opportunistic crime,’ Holness warned.
An evacuation order has also been issued for Jamaican communities prone to flooding and landslides. Holness urged Jamaicans to stay away from low-lying areas.
A hurricane warning has been issued for the southern coast of Haiti and the eastern coast of the Yucatan. Belize has issued a tropical storm warning extending southward from its border with Mexico to Belize City.
Late Monday, Beryl became the first storm to strengthen into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic and reached peak winds of 165 mph on Tuesday before weakening to a still-destructive Category 4.
As of early Wednesday, the storm was located about 200 kilometres (125 miles) southeast of Kingston. It had maximum sustained winds of 233 kilometres (145 mph) and was moving west-northwest at 32 kilometres (20 mph), according to the center.
Hurricane Beryl devastated the island of Saint Lucia leaving a trail of devastation
A man looks at damaged vehicles after devastating floods swept through the city following the passage of Hurricane Beryl along the Venezuelan coast, in Cumanacoa, Venezuela, on July 2, 2024.
Mexico’s Caribbean coast was bracing for Beryl on Wednesday.
The head of the country’s civil protection agency expects Hurricane L to hit Mexico twice, a rare occurrence.
Laura Velázquez said the storm is expected to make landfall between Thursday night and Friday morning along a relatively unpopulated stretch of the Caribbean coast between Tulum and the inland town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto.
The hurricane is expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it crosses the Yucatan Peninsula and re-emerge to storm force over the weekend in the Gulf of Mexico.
Velázquez said Beryl is expected to make a second landfall in Mexico, in the Gulf Coast states of Veracruz or Tamaulipas, near the Texas border.
As Beryl sped through the Caribbean Sea, rescue teams on islands in the southeast were deployed to determine the extent of the damage the hurricane caused on Carriacou, an island in Grenada.
Three people were reported dead in Grenada and Carriacou and another in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, authorities said.
Two more deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, with five people missing, according to authorities. Some 25,000 people in that area were also affected by Beryl’s heavy rains.
The storm is expected to weaken as it moves west, but will still be close to reaching major hurricane strength when it passes over Jamaica.
Storm clouds gather over the mountains as people make last-minute preparations for the arrival of Hurricane Beryl on July 3, 2024 in Kingston, Jamaica.
One fatality in Grenada occurred after a tree fell on a house, said Kerryne James, the environment minister.
Carriacou and Petit Martinique suffered the most damage, with dozens of homes and businesses destroyed in Carriacou.
Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said Tuesday that there was no power, roads were impassable and the possible rise in the death toll “remains a sad reality.”
St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has vowed to rebuild the archipelago.
He said 90 percent of homes on Union Island had been destroyed and that “similar levels of devastation” were expected on Myreau and Canouan islands.
The last major hurricane to hit the southeastern Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.