Hurricane Beryl has claimed at least one life in Jamaica after wreaking havoc across the Caribbean, a spokeswoman for the country's disaster management agency told the US broadcaster CNN late on Wednesday.
A woman died in the north-west of the Caribbean island after a tree fell on her house, the spokeswoman said.
Rescue teams in the capital, Kingston, were also searching for a 20-year-old who had fallen into a gully and been swept away by the floodwaters, The Gleaner newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The latest casualties come in addition to the eight lives claimed thus far by the hurricane in the Caribbean, according to local media. Previously, three deaths had been reported in Grenada and Venezuela each, and one in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
The Category 4 storm brushed Jamaica's southern coast with maximum sustained winds of 215 kilometres per hour on Wednesday, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Beryl then moved further out to sea overnight, weakening to category 3, prompting the hurricane warning for Jamaica to be cancelled. The weather service warned that there was still a risk of heavy rainfall and flash floods, however.
Some roads in the country of around 3 million people were impassable due to fallen trees or flooding, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) said. Local media reported that around 400,000 households were without power.
There were initially no reports of major damage. Pictures on social media showed toppled electricity pylons and roofs blown off.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that almost 500 people had been accommodated in emergency shelters. He had previously declared a nationwide curfew until 6 pm.
Not everyone complied, however, with the Jamaica Observer newspaper reporting on Kingston residents dancing in the pouring rain.
Holness announced the deployment of police and military in the aftermath of the hurricane to help with clean-up efforts and restore order.
Beryl, the first hurricane of the season, developed last weekend from a tropical storm into a category 4 hurricane in less than 24 hours.
Experts consider it the the strongest storm ever to be registered this early in the Atlantic hurricane season, which starts in early June and lasts six months.
The eye of the storm 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.
According to Grenada's National Disaster Management Agency, 98% of buildings on the two islands were damaged or destroyed.
Numerous trees and power poles were toppled, and there was no electricity, water, or mobile phone reception. The entire vegetation on Carriacou had also been destroyed, said Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell.
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.
Beryl is expected to reach the east coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, somewhat weakened, from Thursday evening, the NHC said.