Jamaica asks residents to move to shelters due to the arrival of Beryl

Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) on Wednesday urged people living in low-lying and flood-prone areas to move to shelters ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Beryl.

“We want them to leave (to the shelters) as soon as possible,” said the acting director general of Odpem, Richard Thompson, quoted by local media.

Thompson said that “all shelters have been activated,” including the one set up at the National Stadium, and that administrators are ready to receive people.

“We usually tell people to go early, but people tend not to. They tend to stay at home to see what happens and when they start to see wind and rain they try to move to the shelters,” he lamented.

For this reason, Thompson indicated that they have been sending out some notices so that people can begin moving now to places of shelter.

According to the latest data from Odpem, there are 20 people in shelters on the island, a number that is expected to increase.

“I’m sure that number will increase as soon as we start feeling the full effects of the system,” Thompson said.

The local weather agency is forecasting rainfall totals of 100 to 200 millimetres (four to eight inches) and dangerous storm surges that will raise water levels by up to two to three metres (six to nine feet).

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness earlier said an evacuation order was in effect for areas prone to flooding and landslides, both those at sea level and those near ravines or waterways.

“We urge all Jamaicans to comply with evacuation notices when they are issued. However, even without the issuance of a notice, if you live in a low-lying area that is historically prone to flooding and landslides, I implore you to evacuate to a shelter or to safer ground,” he said.

The Jamaican government also declared the island a disaster zone for the next seven days and imposed a curfew for Wednesday.

Beryl has caused a total of seven deaths in Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Venezuela, and extensive destruction in the first two countries.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) is forecasting some weakening today or tomorrow, Thursday, but Beryl will be a major cyclone as it passes near Jamaica.

In addition to Jamaica, hurricane warnings include the Cayman Islands, the southern coast of Haiti and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.