Hurricane Beryl made landfall on the Yucatán Peninsula just northeast of Tulum along Mexico’s popular Riviera Maya on the Caribbean Sea.

This photo (top) was taken on the resort grounds of Bahía Príncipe Luxury Akumal by Mark Brightwell at 6:16 a.m. (local time) in the “eye” of the hurricane on July 5. On vacation with his family from Las Vegas, Nevada, he spent a few minutes outside observing the extreme weather event during the approximately 30 minute region of calm in the center of the storm.

The strong Category 2 hurricane, with torrential rain and sustained winds of 110 mph, uprooted and wind-snapped palms and other trees and caused some minor flooding and power outages in some areas.

As of Tuesday morning, Beryl had left behind death, destruction, downed power lines and trees etc. in a large portion of southeast Texas before moving towards the central part of the U.S. as a tropical depression.

(Remaining photos by College Area resident karen austin who was in Mexico on vacation during Hurricane Beryl)