dpa
Havana
Hurricane Beryl has claimed at least one life in Jamaica after wreaking havoc across the Caribbean, a spokeswoman for the country’s disaster management agency told the US broadcaster CNN late on Wednesday.
A woman died in the north-west of the Caribbean island after a tree fell on her house, the spokeswoman said.
Rescue teams in the capital, Kingston, were also searching for a 20-year-old who had fallen into a gully and been swept away by the floodwaters, The Gleaner newspaper reported on Wednesday. The latest casualties come in addition to the eight lives claimed thus far by the hurricane in the Caribbean, according to local media.
Previously, three deaths had been reported in Grenada and Venezuela each, and one in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
The Category 4 storm brushed Jamaica’s southern coast with maximum sustained winds of 215km per hour on Wednesday, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Beryl then moved further out to sea overnight, weakening to category 3, prompting the hurricane warning for Jamaica to be cancelled. The weather service warned that there was still a risk of heavy rainfall and flash floods, however.
Some roads in the country of around 3 million people were impassable due to fallen trees or flooding, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) said. Local media reported that around 400,000 households were without power.
There were initially no reports of major damage. Pictures on social media showed toppled electricity pylons and roofs blown off. Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that almost 500 people had been accommodated in emergency shelters.
