ST. GEORGE, Grenada (AP) — Hurricane Beryl was heading toward Jamaica on Tuesday as a powerful Category 4 storm, Across the islands of the southeastern CaribbeanAt least six people died.
Hurricane warnings have been issued for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. According to the National Hurricane Center, Beryl is weakening but is still forecast to approach major hurricane strength when it passes near or over Jamaica early Wednesday, near the Cayman Islands on Thursday, and over Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday.
A hurricane watch was issued for the southern coast of Haiti and the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, and a tropical storm watch was issued for Belize from the Mexican border south to Belize City.
Late Monday, Beryl became the fastest hurricane in the Atlantic to become a Category 5 hurricane, peaking at 165 mph (270 kph) on Tuesday before weakening to a still-destructive Category 4. The storm was at sea about 300 miles (480 km) east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica on Tuesday night. It had maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (240 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 22 mph (35 kph), the center said.
Beryl is expected to bring life-threatening strong winds and a storm surge to Jamaica, and authorities have warned residents in areas at risk of flooding to prepare to evacuate.
“I call on all Jamaicans to take the hurricane as a serious threat,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said in a speech on Tuesday, “but this is not the time to panic.”
In Miami, National Hurricane Center director Michael Brennan said Jamaica appeared to be in Beryl’s direct path.
Fishermen pull a boat damaged by Hurricane Beryl onto the pier at the Bridgetown Fisheries Station in Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (Photo by The Associated Press/Ricardo Mazarin)
“We are most concerned about Jamaica, as the center of a major hurricane is expected to pass near or over the island,” he said in an online briefing. “We want you to be in a safe location to ride out the storm by (Tuesday) night, and be prepared to remain in place through Wednesday.”
Jamaica is expected to experience heavy rainfall and a storm surge of 6 to 9 feet (1.8 to 2.7 meters) above normal tides.
“This is a big risk in the Caribbean, especially in mountainous islands,” Brennan said. “It could cause life-threatening flash floods and landslides in some of these areas.”
A tropical storm warning was issued for the entire southern coast of Hispaniola, which straddles Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Traces of Destruction
As the storm sped through the Caribbean, rescue teams from southeastern islands spread out to assess the extent of the damage Beryl had inflicted on the Grenadian island of Carriacou.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Eric Blake, a senior hurricane expert at the National Hurricane Center, said Beryl should no longer be a Category 5 storm by the time it approaches Jamaica.
Officials said three people were reported dead in Grenada and Carriacou, and one in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Two more were killed and five are missing in northern Venezuela, where heavy rains caused by Beryl have affected about 25,000 people.
This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite image, taken at 10:50 p.m. EDT, shows Hurricane Beryl (center) moving across the Caribbean Sea on Monday, July 1, 2024. (NOAA via The Associated Press)
One person was killed in Grenada when a tree fell on a house, Environment Minister Kerryn James told The Associated Press.
She said the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique were the hardest hit, with many homes and businesses destroyed in Carriacou.
“The situation is dire,” Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said at a news conference on Tuesday. “There is no electricity, homes and buildings across the island have been almost completely destroyed, roads are impassable and many are closed due to the amount of debris on the roads.”
“With movement still severely restricted, the potential for further deaths remains a harsh reality,” Mitchell added.
Meanwhile, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves pledged to rebuild his islands in a statement early Tuesday, noting that 90 percent of homes on Union Island had been destroyed and that “similar levels of devastation” were expected on the islands of Mireau and Canouan.
Several people were evacuated from Union Island by ferry and arrived at Kingstown Ferry Terminal in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Tuesday.
Sharon Desroches, one of the evacuees, said the situation on Union Island was terrible. She endured the hurricane in her bathroom before being evacuated. “It was tough for six of us to fight in that small area for four hours,” she said.
The last powerful hurricane to hit the southeastern Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.
Grenada resident Roy O’Neill, 77, lost his home to Ivan but built a stronger one, which sustained minimal damage from Beryl.
“I felt the wind howling and was really, really scared at times for the next couple of hours,” he said by phone. “Tree branches were flying everywhere.”
Hundreds of people took shelter in evacuation centres across the southeastern Caribbean, including 50 adults and 20 children who took shelter inside a school in Grenada.
“Maybe some people thought they could survive if they stayed inside, but they realized how serious this was and so they left,” said Urban Mason, a former teacher who was a shelter manager. “People tend to let their guard down.”
Among the homes damaged by Beryl was that of the parents of United Nations Climate Change Executive Director Simon Steele, a Carriacou native. The storm also destroyed the home of Steele’s late grandmother.
Stier said in a statement that the climate crisis is worsening faster than expected.
“Whether it’s my hometown of Carriacou being hit by Hurricane Beryl, or where heat waves and floods are devastating communities in one of the world’s largest economies, it’s clear that the climate crisis is pushing disasters to new, record-breaking levels of destruction,” he said.
Known as the “Spice Island,” Grenada is one of the world’s leading exporters of nutmeg, and Mitchell noted that most of the spice is grown in the north of the island, the area most affected by beryl.
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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press writers Annika Kentish in Saint John, Antigua, Kurt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida, Jorge Rueda in Caracas and Lucanus Ollivierre in Kingstown, St. Vincent contributed to this report.
