MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica (WABC) — The death toll from Hurricane Beryl rises as the strongest storm ever to hit the Atlantic in July lashes the Caribbean.

As the storm approaches Jamaica, people are on high alert, including some vacationers from the Tri-State region who had hoped to leave the island before the storm arrived.

For the Simon family from New Jersey, it was six wonderful days in Montego Bay. For them, it was a long-awaited getaway and a college graduation party.

“It's really beautiful. It's beautiful,” said Brett Savage-Simon, a resident of Bloomfield, New Jersey.

But the tropical beauty captured in some of her images will soon give way to gale-force winds and torrential rain.

Beryl, the first hurricane of the season, has already left a trail of devastation on several Caribbean islands, including Grenada, Barbados and St. Lucia, and is now racing toward Jamaica.

“I encourage all Jamaicans to view the hurricane as a serious threat,” said Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness. “However, it is not a time for panic. It is a time for us to be very strategic and calculated.”

In Kingston, Jamaicans heeded the dire warning on Tuesday and imposed curfews wherever possible before the storm made landfall.

“It's developed so quickly, from a tropical impression, so quickly,” said Clive Davis, a local fisherman from Kingston, Jamaica. “It's the first time this has developed in June, July. I'm taking this seriously now, really seriously.”

As for resort guests in Montego Bay, the Simon family, who had hoped to leave early, may have already run out of luck.

“We're hoping we can get out of here before it hits and we're hoping the other people are OK. But when you hear there's a Category 5 storm, it could be coming our way, but like I told you, there's no sign of that right now. So when it gets here, we'll be ready,” Savage-Simon said.

Eyewitness News reporter Darla Miles spoke to the Simon family Tuesday evening and they said their planned flight back to New Jersey had already been canceled.

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