Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season, is advancing through the Caribbean and authorities urged the population to seek shelter from the strong winds and storm surges caused by this powerful category 4 cyclone.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued an alert in which it classified the storm as a Category 4. Although it downgraded Beryl to a Category 3 for Monday, the center maintained that it remains a high-intensity hurricane advancing across the Atlantic about 105 miles southeast of Barbados.

"Beryl is expected to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane as it reaches the Windward Islands this morning. This is a very dangerous situation and residents in these areas should listen to local government and emergency management officials for any preparedness and/or evacuation orders," the National Hurricane Center wrote in the latest advisory it issued on the natural phenomenon.

In that regard, the center detailed that "Beryl is expected to remain a powerful hurricane as it moves through the Caribbean Sea later this week."

"A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for portions of the southern coast of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Interests elsewhere in Hispaniola, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and the rest of the northwest Caribbean should monitor its progress and watches are likely to be required," the NHC maintained.

Meanwhile, AFP recalled that - according to the predicted trajectory - after traveling through the Caribbean islands, Beryl would have an impact early Tuesday morning in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo (east), where the resorts of Cancun and the Riviera Maya are located.

"We are pending, Civil Protection, the Defense Secretariat and the Navy, observing the entire trajectory," Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in brief statements to the press on a working tour in Cancun.