Beryl, once a hurricane but now little more than a disturbance, brought heavy rains and gusting winds to the Caribbean, prompting closure Monday of all units of the National Park System there.

"An area of showers and thunderstorms associated with the remnants of Beryl is producing locally heavy rainfall and strong gusty winds over the northeastern Caribbean Sea and the northern Leeward Islands," the National Hurricane Center reported Monday morning. "The disturbance is expected to move west-northwestward for the next day or so, passing over the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico today, and over Hispaniola tonight."

Though no longer a potent storm, Beryl's remnants nevertheless prompted the governor of Puerto Rico to declare a state of emergency.

"For this reason we have followed suite in conjunction with all federal agencies guidance from the Federal Executive Association," said Randy Lavasseur, superintendent of the Caribbean parks that include San Juan National Historic Site, Virgin Islands National Park, Christiansted National Historic Site, and Buck Island Reef National Monument. "All Caribbean Park units are under Incident Command with essential personnel."

The Caribbean parks all sustained varying degrees of damage last fall when Hurricanes Irma and Maria swept through the Caribbean in September. Recovery efforts have been ongoing in some of those units.