Hurricane Beryl strengthens back into a Category 3 storm as it nears Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula

TULUM, Mexico (AP) — After leaving a trail of destruction across the eastern Caribbean and at least nine people dead, Hurricane Beryl strengthened back into a Category 3 storm late Thursday as it chugged over open water toward Mexico's resort-studded Yucatan Peninsula.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Beryl, which was the earliest Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, now had winds of 115 mph (185 kph ) after weakening earlier Thursday.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued a statement saying Beryl may make a direct hit on Tulum, which, while smaller than Cancun, still holds thousands of tourists and residents.

“It is recommendable that people get to higher ground, shelters or the homes of friends or family elsewhere,” López Obrador wrote. “Don't hesitate, material possessions can be replaced.”

Jack Beven, senior hurricane specialist at the U.S. Hurricane Center, said “the biggest immediate threat now that the storm is moving away from the Cayman Islands is landfall in the Yucatan Peninsula.”

The storm’s center was about 135 miles (220 kilometers) east-southeast of Tulum, Mexico, and was moving west-northwest at 16 mph (about 26 kph), the hurricane center said.

Beryl was expected to bring heavy rain and winds to Mexico's Caribbean coast, before crossing the Yucatan peninsula and restrengthening in the Gulf of Mexico to make a second strike on northeast Mexico.

As the wind began gusting over Tulum's white sand beaches on Thursday afternoon, four-wheelers with megaphones rolled along the sand telling people to leave. Tourists snapped photos of the growing surf, but military personnel urged them to leave as Beryl headed to an expected landfall around Tulum early Friday.

Over the past days, Beryl has damaged or destroyed 95% of homes on a pair of islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, jumbled fishing boats in Barbados and ripped off roofs in Jamaica before rumbling past the Cayman Islands early Thursday.

Mexico’s popular Caribbean coast prepared shelters, evacuated some small outlying coastal communities and even moved sea turtle eggs off beaches threatened by storm surge.

In Playa del Carmen, most businesses were closed Thursday and some were boarding up windows as tourists jogged by and some locals walked their dogs under sunny skies. In Tulum, authorities shut things down and evacuated beachside hotels.

Francisco Bencomo, General manager of Hotel Umi in Tulum said all of their guests had left. “With these conditions, we’ll be completely locked down,” he said, adding there were no plans to have guests return before July 10th.

“We’ve cut the gas and electricity. We also have an emergency floor where two maintenance employees will be locking down,” he said from the hotel. “We have them staying in the room farthest from the beach and windows.”

“I hope we have the least impact possible on the hotel, that the hurricane moves quickly through Tulum, and that it’s nothing serious,” he said.

Tourists were also taking precautions. Lara Marsters, 54, a therapist visiting Tulum from Boise, Idaho, said “this morning we woke up and just filled all of our empty water bottles with water from the tap and put it in the freezer … so we will have water to flush the toilet.”

“We expect that the power will go out,” Marsters said. “We’re going to hunker down and stay safe.”

Myriam Setra, a 34-year-old tourist from Dallas, Texas was having a sandwich on the beach earlier Thursday, saying “figured we’d get the last of the sun in today, too. And then it’s just going to be hunker down and just stay indoors until hopefully it passes.”

But once Beryl re-emerges into the Gulf of Mexico a day later, forecasters say it is again expected to build to hurricane strength and could hit right around the Mexico-U.S. border, at Matamoros. That area was already soaked in June by Tropical Storm Alberto.

Velázquez said temporary storm shelters were in place at schools and hotels but efforts to evacuate a few highly exposed villages — like Punta Allen, which sits on a narrow spit of land south of Tulum — and Mahahual, further south — had been only partially successful.

Beryl's worst damage appeared to be behind it. Its eye wall brushed by Jamaica’s southern coast on Wednesday afternoon while on Thursday morning, telephone poles and trees were blocking the roadways in Kingston.

Authorities confirmed a young man died on Wednesday after he was swept into a storm water drain while trying to retrieve a ball. A woman also died after a house collapsed on her.

Residents took advantage of a break in the rain to begin clearing debris.

Sixty percent of the island remained without electricity, along with a lack of water and limited telecommunications. Government officials were assessing the damage, but it was hampered by the lack of communication, mainly in southern parishes that suffered the most damage.

Some 1,432 people remained in shelters in Jamaica, like Desrine Campbell, a resident of the low-lying community of Old Harbour Bay, who wailed, “My house is almost flooded!”

Nearby, Carlton Golding said ruefully, “I lost everything this time." Golding's house was totally destroyed by the hurricane, the second time that he has suffered damage from storms.

In the south-central parish of Clarendon, residents attempted to mend damaged roofs and clear downed trees. Many roadways in the area remained partially blocked from downed electricity and telecommunication poles.

The premier of the Cayman Islands, Juliana O’Connor, thanked residents and visitors Thursday for contributing to the “collective calm” ahead of Beryl by following storm protocols.

Michelle Forbes, the St. Vincent and Grenadines director of the National Emergency Management Organization, said that about 95% of homes in Mayreau and Union Island have been damaged by Hurricane Beryl.

Three people were reported killed in Grenada and Carriacou and another in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said. Three other deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where four people were missing, officials said.

One fatality in Grenada occurred after a tree fell on a house, Kerryne James, the environment minister, told The Associated Press.

Separately, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Thursday that Tropical Storm Aletta had formed in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico’s coast. Aletta, which was located about 190 miles (310 kilometers) from Manzanillo and had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph), was forecast to head away from land and dissipate by the weekend.

Myers reported from Kingston, Jamaica. Associated Press writers Renloy Trail in Kingston, Jamaica; Mark Stevenson, María Verza and Mariana Martínez Barba in Mexico City; Coral Murphy Marcos in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Lucanus Ollivierre in Kingstown, St. Vincent and Grenadines, contributed to this report.

A man inspects a home destroyed by Hurricane Beryl in Clifton, Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

A man stands next to a business destroyed by Hurricane Beryl in Clifton, Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

A man removes debris from his home, which was destroyed by Hurricane Beryl in Clifton, Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

A man looks out of the window of his home, which was destroyed by Hurricane Beryl in Clifton, Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

Homes destroyed by Hurricane Beryl lie in Clifton, Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

Workers remove trees branches felled by Hurricane Beryl in Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday, July 4, 2024. What had been the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, weakened to a Category 3 by early Thursday but remained a major hurricane taking aim at Mexico’s Caribbean coast. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)

An employee places sandbags along a hotel path as protection from high waters in anticipation of Hurricane Beryl's arrival, in Tulum, Mexico, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Employees board up windows of a hotel as protection in anticipation of Hurricane Beryl's arrival, in Tulum, Mexico, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A man takes a video tfrom the rocky shore of Mirador beach ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Tulum, Mexico, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Hotel employees fill bags with sand to be used as protection from high waters in anticipation of Hurricane Beryl's arrival, in Tulum, Mexico, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Tourists lounge on a beach ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Tulum, Mexico, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A man bails water out of his boat in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, in Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Hudson)

A tree felled by Hurricane Beryl blocks a street in Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Hudson)

Cars drive under a leaning utility pole in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl in Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Hudson)

Soldiers on patrol ride past a leaning utility pole in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl in Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Hudson)

A tree felled by Hurricane Beryl blocks a street in Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Hudson)

A worker secures a dinosaur statue at a theme park ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival in Chicxulub, Mexico, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Zetina)

A boat damaged by Hurricane Beryl lays on its side at a dock in Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Hudson)

Soldiers ask a tourist to evacuate Mirador beach ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival in Tulum, Mexico, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

An aerial view of a home damaged by Hurricane Beryl in Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Hudson)

Boats lie on land for protection in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Beryl in Progreso, Mexico, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Zetina)

State employees relocate a boat for its protection ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Beryl in Progreso, Mexico, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Zetina)

People walk past a souvenir shop's storefront boarded up preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Beryl, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A soldier asks tourists to evacuate Mirador beach ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Tulum, Mexico, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

People relocate a boat for its protection ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Beryl in Progreso, Mexico, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Zetina)

Workers chops a tree uprooted by Hurricane Beryl in St. James, Barbados, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Members of the Red Cross transport a Union Island evacuee on a stretcher as she arrives in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The island, in the Grenadines archipelago, was hit by Hurricane Beryl. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

Evacuees from Union Island arrive in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The island, in the Grenadines archipelago, was hit by Hurricane Beryl. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre).

Members of the Red Cross transport a Union Island evacuee on a stretcher as she arrives in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The island, in the Grenadines archipelago, was hit by Hurricane Beryl. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

Evacuees from Union Island arrive in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The island, in the Grenadines archipelago, was hit by Hurricane Beryl. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

This GOES-East GeoColor satellite image taken at 1:20 p.m. EDT, and provided by NOAA, shows Hurricane Beryl moving towards Jamaica, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (NOAA via AP)

A man fishes in the sea ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Rescuers recover the body of a policeman who state authorities said died in a car accident while checking damage caused by heavy rain in Alto Lucero, Veracruz, Mexico, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Rescuers recover the body of a policeman who state authorities said died in a car accident while checking damage caused by heavy rain in Alto Lucero, Veracruz, Mexico, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Tourists lounge on the beach ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

State employees evacuate turtle eggs from the beach to protect them from the incoming Hurricane Beryl, in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

State employees evacuate turtle eggs from the beach to protect them from the incoming Hurricane Beryl, in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A Mexican soldier stands guard on a beach ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Tourists swim in the ocean ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Furniture store employees board up windows for protection ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Workers remove an advertisement from a billboard for protection ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Workers remove an advertisement from a billboard for protection ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

People lounge on the beach as the sun sets ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

This image provided by NASA shows Hurricane Beryl from the International Space Station on Sunday, July 1, 2024. Beryl was roaring toward Jamaica on Wednesday, July 3, with islanders scrambling to make preparations after the powerful Category 4 storm earlier killed at least six people and caused significant damage in the southeast Caribbean. (NASA via AP)

Furniture store employees board up windows for protection ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — To a defiant President Joe Biden, the 2024 election is up to the public — not the Democrats on Capitol Hill. But the chorus of Democratic voices calling for him to step aside is growing, from donors, strategists, lawmakers and their constituents who say he should bow out.

The party has not fallen in line behind him even after the events that were set up as part of a blitz to reset his imperiled campaign and show everyone he wasn’t too old to stay in the job or to do it another four years.

On Saturday, a fifth Democratic lawmaker said openly that Biden should not run again. Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota said that after what she saw and heard in the debate with Republican rival Donald Trump, and Biden’s “lack of a forceful response” afterward, he should step aside “and allow for a new generation of leaders to step forward.”

Craig posted one of the Democrats’ key suburban wins in the 2018 midterms and could be a barometer for districts that were vital for Biden in 2020.

With the Democratic convention approaching and just four months to Election Day, neither camp in the party can much afford this internecine drama much longer. But it is bound to drag on until Biden steps aside or Democrats realize he won’t and learn to contain their concerns about the president’s chances against Trump.

There were signs party leaders realize the standoff needs to end. Some of the most senior lawmakers, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Rep. James Clyburn, were now publicly working to bring the party back to the president. Pelosi and Clyburn had both raised pointed questions about Biden in the aftermath of the debate.

“Biden is who our country needs,” Clyburn said late Friday after Biden's interview with ABC aired.

On Saturday, Biden’s campaign said the president joined a biweekly meeting with all 10 of the campaign’s nation co-chairs to “discuss their shared commitment to winning the 2024 race.” Clyburn was among them.

But the silence from most other House Democrats on Saturday was notable, suggesting that lawmakers are not all being convinced by what they saw from the president. More House Democrats are likely to call for Biden to step aside when lawmakers return to Washington at the start of the week.

Biden had public schedule Saturday, as he and aides stepped back from the fervor over the past few days. But the president will head out campaigning again on Sunday in Philadelphia, intent on putting the debate behind him. And this coming week, the U.S. is hosting the NATO summit and the president is to hold a news conference.

Vice President Kamala Harris planned to campaign Saturday in New Orleans.

The president's ABC interview on Friday night — billed as an effort to get the campaign back on track — stirred carefully worded expressions of disappointment from the party's ranks, and worse from those who spoke anonymously. Ten days into the crisis moment of the Biden-Trump debate, Biden is dug in.

Even within the White House there were concerns the ABC interview wasn’t enough to turn the page.

Campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez has been texting lawmakers and administration officials are encouraging them not to go public with their concerns about the race and the president’s electability, according to a Democrat granted anonymity to discuss the situation.

Democrats are wrestling over what they see and hear from the president but are not at all certain about a path forward. They were particularly concerned that Biden suggested that even if he were to be defeated in a rematch with Trump, he would know that he gave it his all. That seemed an insufficient response.

As Biden’s camp encourages House lawmakers to give the president the chance to show what he can do, one Democratic aide said the Friday interview didn't help and in fact made things worse. The aide expects more Democrats will likely be calling on Biden to step aside.

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, without breaking with Biden at this point, are pulling together meetings with members in the next few days to discuss options. Many lawmakers are hearing from constituents at home and fielding questions. One senator was working to get others together to ask him to step aside.

Following the interview, a Democratic donor reported that many of the fellow donors he spoke with were furious, particularly because the president declined to acknowledge the effects his aging. Many of those donors are seeking a change in leadership at the top of the ticket, said the person, who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Biden roundly swatted away calls Friday to step away from the race, telling telling voters at a Wisconsin rally, reporters outside Air Force One and ABC's George Stephanopoulos that he was not going anywhere.

“Completely ruling that out," he told reporters the rally.

Biden dismissed those who were calling for his ouster, instead saying he'd spoken with 20 lawmakers and they had all encouraged him to stay in the race.

Concern about Biden’s fitness for another four years has been persistent. In an August 2023 poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, fully 77% of U.S. adults said Biden was too old to be effective for four more years. Not only did 89% of Republicans say that, but so did 69% of Democrats. His approval rating stands at 38%.

Biden has dismissed the polling, citing as evidence his 2020 surge to the nomination and win over Trump, after initially faltering, and the 2022 midterm elections, when polls suggested Republicans would sweep but didn’t, largely in part over the issue of abortion rights.

“I don’t buy that,” when he was reminded that he was behind in the polls. “I don’t think anybody’s more qualified to be president or win this race than me."

At times, Biden rambled during the interview, which ABC said aired in full and without edits. Asked how he might turn the race around, Biden argued that one key would be large and energetic rallies like the one he held Friday in Wisconsin. When reminded that Trump routinely draws larger crowds, the president laid into his opponent.

“Trump is a pathological liar,” Biden said, accusing Trump of bungling the federal response to the COVID pandemic and failing to create jobs. “You ever see something that Trump did that benefited someone else and not him?”

Republicans, though, are squarely behind their candidate, and support for Trump, who at 78 is three years younger than Biden, has been growing.

And that’s despite Trump’s 34 felony convictions in a hush money trial, that he was found liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996, and that his businesses were found to have engaged in fraud.

Miller and Mascaro reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Saugatuck, Michigan, and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign rally at Sherman Middle School in Madison, Wis., Friday, July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

President Joe Biden responds to questions from the traveling press as he arrives at Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Del., Friday, July 5, 2024, from a campaign rally in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Joe Biden responds to questions from the traveling press as he arrives at Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Del., Friday, July 5, 2024, from a campaign rally in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Joe Biden arrives at Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Del., Friday, July 5, 2024, from a campaign rally in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)