Jamaica is bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Beryl, which has already killed several people and razed entire islands to the ground in its destructive path through the Caribbean.
According to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), the eye of the storm will likely pass over Jamaica on Wednesday, bringing life-threatening winds and storm surges. The outer winds of the hurricane were already causing heavy rain on the Caribbean island early on Wednesday.
"I am now declaring the whole of Jamaica to be a disaster area ... for the next seven days," Prime Minister Andrew Holness said in a national address late on Tuesday.
An island-wide curfew was set to go into effect between the hours of 6 am [1100 GMT] and 6 pm, he said. This was "to ensure the safety of everyone during the passage of the storm, and prevent any movement with the intent to carry out criminal activity."
The government has made "a special allocation" of funds for food and building supplies, he added.
The final preparations being made in Jamaica included providing emergency shelters and cleaning road drains to try and prevent flooding. The airports in Kingston and Montego Bay were to be closed overnight.
Disaster in Grenada
Beryl was temporarily upgraded to a "potentially catastrophic" category 5 - the highest level - late on Monday, but has since lost some of its intensity, the NHC said.
With sustained maximum winds of 230 kilometres per hour, Beryl is now a category 4 storm, just below the threshold of 251 km/h for category 5.
Beryl made landfall on Monday in the south-eastern Caribbean islands of Carriacou, with around 6,000 inhabitants, and Petite Martinique, with about 900. Both belong to Grenada.
Terence Walters, coordinator of Grenada's National Disaster Management Agency, said at a press conference late on Tuesday that 98% of the buildings on the two islands were damaged or destroyed.
Numerous trees and power poles have been toppled, and there is no electricity, water, or mobile phone reception. The entire vegetation on Carriacou has also been destroyed, said Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell.
"This hurricane is a direct consequence of the climate crisis, at the forefront of which are Grenada, the Caribbean and other small island developing states," Mitchell emphasized.
Grenada will demand climate justice from the international community, he added. Mitchell stated that island states will no longer accept having to take out loans to rebuild year after year while the countries responsible for the climate crisis remain inactive.
UN spokesman Stephané Dujarric told journalists in New York that seven agencies based in Grenada and nine in St Vincent and the Grenadines "will be augmented by additional UN emergency teams in the coming days."
Also hit hard was Union Island, with around 5,000 residents, which belongs to the country of St Vincent and the Grenadines. According to the government, around 90% of the infrastructure on the island was damaged.
Grenada has so far reported three deaths due to the storm, Venezuela two, and St Vincent and the Grenadines one.
Venezuelan vice president hit by tree
Neighbouring island states were also battered by heavy rains and strong winds, including St Lucia and Venezuela.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was struck by a falling tree during Hurricane Beryl, according to the government.
"She was hit hard, but she is conscious," Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said in a speech to supporters.
Rodríguez had travelled to the northern coastal state of Sucre to oversee the clean-up of damage caused by Beryl.
More danger ahead
Beryl is the first hurricane of the season, which starts at the beginning of June.
According to experts, never before has a hurricane of this magnitude been recorded in the Atlantic this early in the year.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expects an unusually strong hurricane season this year amid rising water temperatures due to climate change and La Niña, a season of cooler water temperatures in the Pacific expected to set in this year.
The eye of the storm is forecast to pass over or near the Cayman Islands from overnight Thursday. It is expected to approach Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula on Friday.