As Jamaica recovered from the passage of Berylthe first Atlantic hurricane of the season, continued its path towards the tourist coasts of Mexico on Thursday, where it was expected in the middle of the night.
“There was a lot of fear, more fear than harm, basically, in Jamaica,” Chantal Sabourin noted on Thursday.
Travel agent in Oka, Mme Sabourin spent Tuesday and Wednesday responding to concerns from her clients and other Quebecers who wrote to her on her Facebook page, Les Accros de la Jamaica. But as early as 6 a.m. Thursday morning, clients staying in Falmouth, about 40 minutes from Montego Bay, told her: “Everything is fine, there’s no more wind, they’re already cleaning the land,” she told us.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MARIO RIVARD
Mario Rivard and Martine Tremblay, from Chicoutimi, spent just over 24 hours in Runaway Bay, Jamaica, before being repatriated by Transat on Tuesday.
Mario Rivard and Martine Tremblay, for their part, have barely seen Runaway Bay, repatriated by Transat on Tuesday, the day after their arrival. They followed the situation on a social network of hotel guests. “Some [portes-fenêtres] “We broke, doors broke, but the damage seems limited,” Rivard told us Thursday. “We changed our route, we got to Île d’Orléans. A different island: we are in a vineyard…”
Global Affairs Canada reported no injured Canadians Thursday. Beryl However, it left at least nine dead in its wake, including one in Jamaica, where homes were flattened and more than 400,000 people were left without power.
The Cayman Islands suffered flooding and mudslides, and two islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines reportedly had more than 90% of their homes washed away.
In Grenada, three people were reported dead Thursday. The Grenadian islands of Petite Martinique and Carriacou have been devastated, said Lynn Kaak, a former Torontonian who has lived in Grenada since 2018. Some of her friends, including a Canadian, have lost their homes, and the country’s water is running out, she said.
Downgraded to a Category 2 tropical storm, but still considered “dangerous” with winds of up to 175 km/h, Beryl continued its route towards the Yucatan Peninsula, where it was expected during the night from Thursday to Friday.
Ottawa has advised Canadians to avoid all non-essential travel to the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, from Cabo Catoche to Chetumal to Cozumel. Cancun’s airport, which is under orange alert, urged travellers to check the status of their flights before travelling Thursday. Arrivals and departures boards posted on the airport’s X account late in the day showed only cancelled flights.
Check Canada’s travel warnings
With Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press and The Canadian Press