TULUM, Mexico (AFP)
Beryl weakened to a tropical storm Friday after hitting Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane. Its fierce winds caused material damage but no injuries along the touristic Yucatan Peninsula.
Now headed for the Gulf of Mexico, Beryl is expected to intensify as it moves toward northeastern Mexico and the US state of Texas by the end of the weekend, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC).
After tearing through the Caribbean and coastal Venezuela, leaving seven people dead, the storm hit southeast Mexico early Friday with winds of up to 175 kilometres per hour.
It flattened trees and lampposts and ripped off roof tiles, according to Mexico's civil protection authority.
Electricity was lost in at least three municipalities in the southeastern Quintana Roo state as Beryl moved deeper inland and weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm.
"On the initial reports, there appears to be no loss of life, and that is what matters most to us," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in his daily press briefing.
Mexico's emergency authorities later told reporters there were no injuries or deaths nor damage to critical infrastructure such as roads and the water system.
Civil protection chief Laura Velazquez said electricity had been restored to 70 per cent and would be fully recovered by Sunday.
About 2,200 people sought shelter at temporary shelters, and more than 25,600 security force members and employees of the CFE electricity agency were deployed to help residents and repair damage.
As a precaution, 348 flights were cancelled at Cancun airport, the largest terminal in the Mexican Caribbean.
By Friday afternoon, state governor Mara Lezama said the airport had resumed service.
Re-intensification
The NHC said Beryl weakened from a Category 2 hurricane to Category 1 by the time it hit Yucatan -- milder than earlier in the week when it left a trail of destruction across the Caribbean and parts of Venezuela.
It added on Friday that a hurricane watch -- signaling a forecast re-intensification from tropical storm status -- had been issued for much of the Texas coast ahead of Beryl's anticipated arrival there late on Sunday.
By late Friday, the NHC tracked Beryl 995 kilometres southeast of Corpus Christi in Texas, while the storm's maximum sustained winds had slowed to 95 kph.
In Mexico, hundreds of tourists were evacuated from hotels along the coast before the storm's arrival.
The army, which deployed some 8,000 troops to Tulum, said it had food supplies and 34,000 litres of purified water to distribute to the population.
The army also set up a soup kitchen in Tulum for people who could return home due to flooding or blocked roads.
Alvaro Rueda, a 51-year-old bricklayer, told AFP his neighborhood had already started clearing up after the storm's passage.
"Most of the stores are already open... we have purchased food, even if it is canned, there is food," he said.
Beryl is the first hurricane since NHC records began to reach the Category 4 level in June, and the earliest to hit the highest Category 5 in July.
It is extremely rare for such a powerful storm to form this early in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from early June to late November.
Scientists say climate change likely contributes to the rapid intensification of storms like Beryl, as a warmer ocean provides more energy for them to feed on.
According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, North Atlantic waters are currently between two and five degrees Fahrenheit (1-3 degrees Celsius) warmer than normal.