(NewsNation) — Hurricane Beryl headed toward Jamaica Wednesday, with islanders scrambling to make preparations after the Category 4 storm earlier killed at least six people and caused significant damage in the southeast Caribbean.
“It was like a movie,” said St. Vincent resident Seymour Laborde. “We just have a lot of devastation. It’s just a mess. It’s hard to think about.”
In Kingston, people boarded up windows, fishermen pulled their boats out of the water, and workers dismantled roadside advertising boards to protect them from the lashing winds.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. Beryl was forecast to weaken slightly over the next day or two but still be at or near major hurricane strength when it passes near or over Jamaica on Wednesday, near the Cayman Islands on Thursday and into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Jamaica was under a state of emergency, as the island was declared a disaster zone hours before Beryl’s impact.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said that the disaster zone declaration will remain for the next seven days. He also announced an island-wide curfew between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Late Monday, Beryl became the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic and peaked at winds of 165 mph Tuesday before weakening to a still-destructive Category 4. On Wednesday, the storm was about 75 miles southeast of Kingston. It had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph and was moving west-northwest at 18 mph.
In Miami, U.S. National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said Jamaica appears to be in Beryl’s direct path. He urged residents to find a safe place to shelter and stay there through Wednesday.
“We are most concerned about Jamaica, where we are expecting the core of a major hurricane to pass near or over the island,” he said in an online briefing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.