‘Monster’ Hurricane Beryl kills six and causes ‘immense destruction’ in Caribbean
3 July 2024, 06:14
Hurricane Beryl is making its way to towards Jamaica after battering the southeastern Caribbean, killing at least six people.
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Around 90 per cent of homes have been destroyed on one island in the region, according to reports.
Beryl is the earliest storm on record to reach Category 5, the most severe level on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.
It has started to lose its intensity as it heads towards Jamaica, though remains an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm.
It will pass over Jamaica on Wednesday and the Cayman Islands on Thursday.
The US National Hurricane Centre upgraded the storm to Category 5 status late on Monday.
The damage done by the "monster" storm has not yet been assessed by the the authorities on the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, where there were initial reports of major damage but communications were largely down.
Streets from St Lucia island south to Grenada were strewn with shoes, trees, downed power lines and scores of other debris scattered by winds up to 150mph.
The storm snapped banana trees in half and killed cows that lay in green pastures as if they were sleeping, with homes made of tin and plywood tilting precariously nearby.
Beryl was still swiping the southeast Caribbean late on Monday afternoon as it began moving into the Caribbean Sea on a track that would take it just south of Jamaica and toward Mexico's Yucatan peninsula by late Thursday as a Category 1 storm.
Late on Monday, Beryl was located about 575 miles east-southeast of Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic and was moving west-northwest at 21 mph, with hurricane conditions possible in Jamaica on Wednesday.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, and a tropical storm warning for the entire southern coast of Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
"Beryl is expected to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane as its moves over the eastern Caribbean," the National Hurricane Centre said.
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The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.
Terence Walters, Grenada's national disaster coordinator, said that on Monday afternoon, officials received "reports of devastation" from Carriacou and surrounding islands.
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said he would travel to Carriacou as soon as it was safe, noting the "extensive" storm surge. He said that Grenada officials had to evacuate patients to a lower floor after the hospital roof was damaged.
"There is the likelihood of even greater damage," he told reporters. "We have no choice but to continue to pray."
In Barbados, Wilfred Abrahams, minister of home affairs and information, said drones would assess damage once Beryl passes.
NBC Radio in St Vincent and the Grenadines reported that roofs were torn off churches and schools as communications began collapsing across the southeast Caribbean.
Beryl was the earliest Category 4 Atlantic hurricane on record, beating Hurricane Dennis, which became a Category 4 storm on July 8, 2005.
