Mexico’s top tourist destinations were on red alert as Hurricane Beryl churned toward the coast on Thursday evening after leaving behind a deadly trail of destruction across several Caribbean islands, writes Reuters.

Beryl on early Friday turned into a Category 2 storm, the Mexico National Weather Service said, and was packing winds up to 110 mph (175 kph) as it neared the Yucatan peninsula"s eastern coast early Friday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC), which warned of a dangerous storm surge and damaging waves.

The unusually fierce, early season hurricane was close to landfall about 65 km east of the Mexican beach resort of Tulum, with hurricane conditions starting to occur in the Yucatan Peninsula, the NHC said.

With a hurricane warning declared along the Yucatan coast from Puerto Costa Maya to the country’s top tourist destination Cancun, including Cozumel.

The “red alert” called by Mexico’s civil protection agency signifies a threat of maximum hazard from Beryl. It told people to stay in their homes or at storm shelters.