Hurricane Beryl sweeps past Cayman Islands after hammering Jamaica

KINGSTON, Jamaica: Hurricane Beryl swept past the Cayman Islands on Thursday en route to Mexico, threatening to bring gusting winds and storm surge after battering Jamaica´s southern coast.

Beryl weakened to a Category 3 storm overnight, and now has maximum sustained winds of 195-kms an hour. It is expected to weaken further as it heads toward landfall early Friday on Mexico´s Yucatan Peninsula.

The storm has left a trail of destruction across the Caribbean and the coast of Venezuela, killing at least seven people and bringing with it flash floods and mudslides.

The storm is the first since NHC records began to reach the Category 4 level in June and the earliest to reach Category 5 in July.

In the Cayman Islands, Acting Deputy Governor Eric Bush said there have been no calls for evacuations and expressed worry that some people were leaving their homes to film the storm, the Cayman Compass news website said.