Hurricane Beryl has thrashed Jamaica with heavy winds and rain, killing at least one person after forging a destructive, water-soaked path across smaller Caribbean islands over the past couple days.
The death toll from the powerful Category 4 hurricane climbed to at least 10, but it is widely expected to rise further as communications come back online across drenched islands damaged by flooding and deadly winds.
In Jamaica, Beryl's eyewall skirted the island's southern coast, pummelling communities as emergency groups rushed to evacuate people from flood-prone areas.
"It's terrible. Everything's gone. I'm in my house and scared," said Amoy Wellington, a 51-year-old cashier who lives in Top Hill, a rural farming community in Jamaica's southern St. Elizabeth parish. "It's a disaster."
A woman died in Jamaica's Hanover parish after a tree fell on her home, Richard Thompson, acting director general at Jamaica's disaster agency said in an interview on local news.
Nearly 1000 Jamaicans were in shelters by Wednesday evening, Thompson added.
With maximum winds of up to 209km/h, Hurricane Beryl has left a trail of destruction. (AP PHOTO)
The island's main airports were closed and streets were mostly empty after Prime Minister Andrew Holness issued a nationwide curfew for Wednesday.
"We can do as much as we can do, as (is) humanly possible, and we leave the rest in the hands of God," Holness said, urging residents in vulnerable areas to evacuate.
Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, one of the hardest-hit areas in the eastern Caribbean, said in a radio interview that the country's Union Island was "flattened" by Beryl.
"Everybody is homeless ... It is going to be a Herculean effort to rebuild."
Speaking to state media, Nerissa Gittens-McMillan, permanent secretary at St Vincent and the Grenadines' agriculture ministry, warned of possible food shortages after 50 per cent of the country's plantations and banana crops were lost, with significant losses also to root crops and vegetables.
Power outages were widespread across Jamaica, while some roads near the coast were washed out.
The hurricane has brought storm surges to parts of the Caribbean. (AP PHOTO)
By Wednesday evening, the eye of the spiralling hurricane was located about 161km west of Kingston, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC). The storm's core headed toward the Cayman Islands, where hurricane conditions were expected.
Beryl is packing maximum sustained winds of 209km/h.
The force of the winds is expected to weaken somewhat in the next day or two, according to the NHC, though it cautioned that Beryl would remain at or near major hurricane strength as it passed the Cayman Islands.
Beryl is expected to dump 10-15cm of rain on the Cayman Islands overnight and into Thursday. Large swells were expected to "cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions," the NHC said.
The centre added that a hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, as well as the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, including for the country's top beach resort Cancun.
Additional confirmed fatalities so far include at least three dead in St Vincent and the Grenadines, a senior official told Reuters, where Union Island has suffered severe destruction of over 90 per cent of buildings.
In Grenada, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell described "Armageddon-like" conditions with no power and widespread destruction, while also confirming three deaths.
In Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro told state television that three people had died and four were missing in the area, along with more than 8000 homes damaged by torrential rains, including at least 400 destroyed.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was injured as she surveyed an area south of Beryl on Tuesday night, where the Manzanares River in Sucre state burst its banks.
The unusually early hurricane strengthened at a record pace, which scientists argue is almost certainly fuelled by climate change.
Officials say over 90 per cent of buildings in St Vincent and the Grenadines have been destroyed. (AP PHOTO)
Beryl is the 2024 Atlantic season's first hurricane and the earliest storm on record to reach the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson five-stage scale. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has forecast a large number of major hurricanes in an "extraordinary" season this year.
Beyond near-term impact in Jamaica and Haiti, the NHC warned that Beryl will likely make landfall as hurricane on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula as early as Thursday night.
with AP