Here Is the Path ‘Dangerous’ Hurricane Beryl Is Expected to Take

After Grenada’s leader called the damage incurred by Hurricane Beryl “unimaginable," Jamaica has called a nationwide curfew as locals brace for the arrival of the record-breaking storm, currently at Category 4.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced late on Tuesday that a nationwide curfew would take effect from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time on Wednesday. “This is to ensure the safety of everyone during the passage of the storm and prevent any movement with the intent to carry out criminal activity,” Holness said in a video shared on Instagram.

The “potentially catastrophic” storm is set to arrive in Jamaica on Wednesday, with projected sustained winds of 145 m.p.h., down from 165 miles per hour according to the National Hurricane Center. Beryl is expected to arrive in Jamaica as a Category 4 hurricane, bringing heavy winds and rainfall in tow.

Beryl set records late on Monday, when it became the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane at that point in the season. It has since slightly weakened to Category 4, which remains powerful and destructive.   

Among the affected nations are Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Grenada.

At least seven people have died as the hurricane plows through the Caribbean, per CNN.

“In half an hour, Carriacou was flattened,” Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said on Monday, as Beryl sustained winds of 150 m.p.h. Mitchell visited Carriacou and Petite Martinique in the aftermath of the hurricane’s “total” destruction, which has damaged or destroyed an estimated 98% of the Carriacou’s buildings, including its main health facility and airport. 

The hurricane is expected to continue westward over the course of the next four to five days. It is set to pass through Jamaica to the Cayman Islands on Thursday, before reaching the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico and Belize, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm will skim the Dominican Republic and Haiti though they will be further from the eye than other islands.

The National Hurricane Center has warned that the storm surge is “life-threatening.”

On Sunday, Hurricane Beryl was recorded as the only Category 4 storm in the month of June, causing an exceptionally aggressive start to the Atlantic hurricane season this year, which usually peaks between the months of August and October.