Mexico beach resorts brace for Hurricane Beryl as tourists face prospect of approaching storm

(4 Jul 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tulum, Mexico - 3 July 2024
1. Various of waves in choppy seas
2. Wide of palm trees swaying in the wind, waves in choppy seas
3. Various of people boarding up storefront
4. Mid of boarded up shop
5. Wide of traffic
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Playa del Carmen, Mexico - 3 July 2024
6. Various of people boarding up storefront
7. Mid of forklift arriving
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ramsés Araiza, marble setter:
"The truth is, I'm curious because this is the first hurricane I'm going to experience. Now, my coworkers are boarding up the windows."
9. Tilt down of workers being lifted by forklift as they put up wood
10. Close of man’s hand screwing board to storefront
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cancun, Mexico - 3 July 2024
11. Various of people on the beach, in the sea
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Donna McNaughton, cardiac physiologist from Scotland:
"We’ll be staying here because our flight is not due home until Monday and I think we’ll just take advice from the hotel and the reps that are there but we’re not too scared."
13. Wide of people on the beach
14. Various of beach huts
15. Wide of people taking photo on beach
16. SOUNDBITE (French) Titouan Robardet, sports and physical education student:
"We didn't know anything about it (hurricane). We'd already bought the tickets and so on. And so now we are a bit exposed. We've never seen a hurricane or anything like that in France - we’ve had lots of cyclones but nothing like this. So we still don't know how we'll react. We've tried to stock up a bit."
17. Wide of boat sailing near beach
18. Mid of waves in choppy sea
19. Wide of boxes of rescued sea turtle eggs ready to be moved away from hurricane’s path
20. Close of note on box reading (Spanish) "Turtle - White - Eggs"
21. Mid of boxes of rescued sea turtle eggs
22. Wide of traffic
23. Various of people buying provisions
24. Close of bottled water pack
25. Wide of closed shop
26. Various of workers removing roadside billboard
STORYLINE:
Residents and tourists on Mexico's Caribbean coast were preparing for Hurricane Beryl Wednesday.
In the popular beach resorts of Tulum and Playa del Carmen, workers were boarding up storefronts as others fled to supermarkets to stock up.
Beryl was roaring by Jamaica on Wednesday, bringing fierce winds and heavy rain after the powerful Category 4 storm earlier killed at least seven people and caused significant damage in the southeast Caribbean.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, and the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancun.
Mexican authorities said the hurricane is expected to make landfall between late Thursday and early Friday along a relatively unpopulated stretch of coast south of Tulum.
Beryl is then expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it crosses the Yucatan peninsula and reemerge over the weekend at storm strength into the Gulf of Mexico.
Stung by past failures to prepare for hurricanes, the government on Wednesday began evacuating even sea turtle eggs from beaches ahead of Beryl.
Government employees kept the recently-laid sea turtle eggs covered with sand in dozens of coolers while transferring them to safer spots.
Despite warnings from authorities, Beryl did not deter some tourists who had already booked their holidays.
"We’ll be staying here because our flight is not due home till Monday… we’re not too scared," said Donna McNaughton, 43, a cardiac physiologist visiting Cancun from Scotland.
AP video shot by Martín Silva Rey and Dan Christian Rojas.
Find out more about AP Archive: www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: / ap_archive
Facebook: / aparchives ​​
Instagram: / apnews
You can license this story through AP Archive: www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...