Hurricane Beryl takes aim at the Mexican resort of Tulum as a Category 3 storm
Hurricane Beryl has strengthened back into a Category 3 storm and is headed for what could be a direct hit on Mexico’s Caribbean coast resort of Tulum, where authorities are urging tourists to leave white sand beaches
TULUM, Mexico — Hurricane Beryl strengthened back into a Category 3 storm and headed for what could be a direct hit on Mexico's Caribbean coast resort of Tulum early Friday, where authorities urged tourists to leave white sand beaches.
Beryl was the earliest Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic before weakening to a Category 2 storm. But it regained strength late Thursday with windspeeds of 115 mph (185 kph ) as it neared landfall on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
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 holds 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 yards (meters) above sea level.
Late Thursday night, the storm’s center was about 135 miles (220 kilometers) east-southeast of Tulum and was moving west-northwest at 16 mph (about 26 kph), the hurricane center said.
On Friday, Beryl was expected to weaken as it crossed over the Yucatan peninsula and re-emerge in the Gulf of Mexico, where the
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