Missing roofs and flooded streets in Jamaica as Category 3 Hurricane Beryl moves on

MIAMI — Cleanup began in Jamaica Thursday morning as the last vestiges of powerful Hurricane Beryl pulled away overnight, leaving roofless homes, flooded buildings, blocked roads and extensive power outages, as well as at least one confirmed death.

Beryl, which finally weakened to a Category 3 overnight, was nearly finished thrashing the Cayman Islands Thursday morning as it headed for its next landfall on the Yucatan peninsula Friday — likely as a Category 1 hurricane.

Its imminent Caribbean exit is welcome news for the many islands smacked by the history-making hurricane. At least seven are dead in the eastern Caribbean, where Beryl first made landfall on Monday and leveled some small islands with “98% destruction.”

Even the outermost bands of Beryl were enough to cause power outages and road closures in the Dominican Republic, but the harder hit was on Jamaica’s southern coast, which got brushed by the northern eyewall of the at-the-time Category 4 hurricane.

Jamaicans woke up Thursday to downed power lines in Portmore, trees blocking the highway in Manchester and in south St. Elizabeth: knee-high flood waters, wet furniture and ripped-off roofs. Around 400,000 customers were without electricity overnight Wednesday, the Jamaica Public Service Company told the Jamaica Gleaner.

Hurricane Beryl left a trail of destruction in southern parishes where Machester and St. Elizabeth bore the brunt of Beryl’s powerful winds and rain before the hurricane warning was lifted shortly before midnight and a flash flood watch went into effect.

Transport Minister Daryl Vaz confirmed that while the runway at Norman Manley International Airport was not impacted, the jet bridge roof for boarding and arrival was ripped off by the storm.

“A plan will be prepared to show how the airport will operate while that area is being repaired,” Vaz wrote on X.

Due to the damage, the airport will remain closed Thursday to allow for repairs. The proposed reopening is 5 a.m. Friday, Vaz said in a statement. The country’s Sangster International Airport and Ian Fleming International Airport are operational.

Officials confirmed one death so far, a 26-year-old woman who died after a tree limb fell on her, Acting Director-General at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, Richard Thompson, told the Jamaica Observer.

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