AP – Hurricane Beryl weakened slightly to a Category two storm as it headed for what could be a direct hit on Mexico’s Caribbean coast resort of Tulum yesterday, where authorities urged tourists to leave white sand beaches.
Beryl was the earliest Category five hurricane in the Atlantic before weakening to a Category two storm with windspeeds of 175 kilometre per hour (kph) as it neared landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, according to the United States (US) National Hurricane Centre.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued a statement late Thursday saying Beryl may make a direct hit on Tulum, which, while smaller than Cancun, still has thousands of tourists and residents.
“It is recommendable that people get to higher ground, shelters or the homes of friends or family elsewhere,” López Obrador wrote. “Don’t hesitate, material possessions can be replaced.”
Once a sleepy, laid-back village, in recent years Tulum has boomed with unrestrained development and now has about 50,000 permanent inhabitants and at least as many tourists on an average day. The resort now has its own international airport, but it is largely low-lying, just a few metres above sea level.
Early yesterday, the storm’s centre was about 65 kilometres east of Tulum and was moving west-northwest at 24 kph, the hurricane centre said.
As the wind began gusting over Tulum’s beaches, four-wheelers with megaphones rolled along the sand telling people to leave.
Tourists snapped photos of the growing surf, but military personnel urged them to leave.
Authorities around the Yucatan peninsula have prepared shelters, evacuated some small outlying coastal communities and even moved sea turtle eggs off beaches threatened by storm surge. In Tulum, authorities shut things down and evacuated beachside hotels.
A general manager of Hotel Umi in Tulum Francisco Bencomo said all of their guests had left.
“With these conditions, we’ll be completely locked down,” he said, adding there were no plans to have guests return before July 10. “We’ve cut the gas and electricity. We also have an emergency floor where two maintenance employees will be locking down,” he said from the hotel.
