Flash floods warning after Hurricane Beryl hits Jamaica

People successful Jamaica are assessing the harm aft Hurricane Beryl deed the confederate seashore of the Caribbean island.

The class 4 tempest - 1 of the astir almighty to ever deed the state - brought winds of up to 130mph (215km/h) to Jamaica's southbound coast.

Overnight Prime Minister Andrew Holness extended an island-wide curfew to 06:00 section clip (11:00 GMT) connected Thursday, with a flash flood informing besides successful effect.

Beryl has present weakened to a class 3 storm, and is rolling towards the Yucatan Peninsula successful confederate Mexico, the National Hurricane Center reports.

The BBC's Nick Davis, who is successful Jamaica's superior Kingston, says the land has been "spared the worst of the winds", and the existent interest for residents is the bedewed weather, with it "raining solidly for astir 12 hours".

Some farmland has been flooded, helium said, causing a occupation successful an country wherever "regulation is sparse".

One nonmigratory of a agrarian farming assemblage told the Reuters quality agency: "It's terrible. Everything's gone. I'm successful my location and I'm scared."

"It's a disaster," said Amoy Wellington, who lives successful the confederate parish of St Elizabeth.

Late connected Wednesday night, Jamaica's meteorological work cancelled its hurricane informing and replaced it with the flash flood warning.

It warned that continuing periods of rainfall could "result successful flash flooding implicit low-lying and flood-prone areas of the island".

More than 400,000 radical were without powerfulness connected Thursday morning, the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) reported.

Earlier connected Wednesday, JPS said it was forced to intermission the restoration of powerfulness lines successful immoderate locations, due to the fact that of information concerns for its workers.

The deficiency of airy means locals are conscionable "trying to truly enactment retired however atrocious the harm has really been", our analogous said.

And lone erstwhile daylight comes, volition "we we get a existent thought of however overmuch harm has happened".

The premier curate has urged residents to "take each indispensable steps for your information and the extortion of your property".

In a station connected X, Mr Holness thanked "first responders, indispensable services, information forces and bully Samaritans who person assisted others successful this clip of crisis".

"This tempest volition pass, and we volition recover," helium said.