1 death and plenty of damage in Jamaica. Hurricane Beryl weakens to Category 2

MIAMI — Cleanup began in Jamaica Thursday 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 weakened to a Category 2 by midday after passing the Cayman Islands and was 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 of them are reeling 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.

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.

A missing man was also washed away by floodwaters, Jamaican Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon told the Observer.

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