Beryl heads toward Jamaica as a major hurricane after ripping through southeast Caribbean
Hurricane Beryl roared through open waters Tuesday as a powerful Category 4 storm heading toward Jamaica after earlier making landfall in the southeastern Caribbean, killing at least six people.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, Cayman Brac and for Haiti’s entire southern coast. Beryl was forecast to start losing intensity Tuesday but still be near major hurricane strength when it passes near or over Jamaica early Wednesday, near the Cayman Islands on Thursday and into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Late Monday, Beryl became the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, fueled by record warm waters, though it was downgraded a notch Tuesday to Category 4.
The center said Beryl was expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surge to Jamaica, where officials warned residents in flood-prone areas to prepare for evacuation.
“I am encouraging all Jamaicans to take the hurricane as a serious threat,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said in a public address late Monday. “It is, however, not a time to panic.”
Winds up to 150 mph, just shy of a Category 5 storm, blew off roofs, uprooted trees and caused other damage on Carriacou, one of Grenada’s islands.
Beryl is the earliest Category 5 storm to form in the Atlantic, fueled by record warm waters.
Late Tuesday morning, the storm was about 235 miles southeast of Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic. It had top winds of 160 mph and was moving west-northwest at 22 mph.
In Miami, National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said Jamaica appeared to be in the direct path of Beryl.
“We are most concerned about Jamaica, where we are expecting the core of a major hurricane to pass near or over the island,” he said in an online briefing. “You want to be in a safe place where you can ride out the storm by nightfall [Tuesday]. Be prepared to stay in that location through Wednesday.”
Storm surge of 5 to 8 feet above typical tide levels is likely in Jamaica, as well as heavy rainfall.
Hurricane Beryl is forecast to strengthen into a powerful Category 4 storm as it approaches the southeast Caribbean.
“This is a big hazard in the Caribbean, especially with the mountainous islands,” Brennan said. “This could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides in some of these areas.”
A tropical storm warning was in place for the entire southern coast of Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
As the storm barreled through the Caribbean Sea, rescue crews fanned out across the region‘s southeast to determine the extent of the damage that Hurricane Beryl inflicted after landing on Carriacou, an island in Grenada, as a Category 4 storm.
Three people were reported killed in Grenada and Carriacou and one in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said. Two other deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where five people are missing, officials said. About 25,000 people in that area also were affected by heavy rain.
One fatality in Grenada occurred after a tree fell on a house, Kerryne James, minister of climate resilience, environment and renewable energy, told the Associated Press.
She said the nearby islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique sustained the greatest damage, with water, food and baby formula a priority. Beryl flattened scores of homes and businesses in Carriacou.
“The situation is grim,” Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said at a news conference Tuesday. “There is no power, and there is almost complete destruction of homes and buildings on the island. The roads are not passable, and in many instances they are cut off because of the large quantity of debris strewn all over the streets.”
Beryl has strengthened into a hurricane in the Atlantic and is forecast to become a major storm as it approaches the Caribbean.
Mitchell added: “The possibility that there may be more fatalities remains a grim reality as movement is still highly restricted.”
Meanwhile, Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, promised in a statement early Tuesday to rebuild the archipelago. He noted that 90% of homes on Union Island were destroyed, and that “similar levels of devastation” were expected on the islands of Mayreau and Canouan.
The last strong hurricane to hit the southeastern Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.
Grenadian resident Roy O’Neale, 77, recalled how he lost his home to Ivan and built back stronger, with his current home sustaining minimal damage from Hurricane Beryl.
“I felt the wind whistling, and then for about two hours straight, it was really, really terrifying at times,” he said by phone. “Branches of trees were flying all over the place.”
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Hundreds of people hunkered in shelters across the southeastern Caribbean, including 50 adults and 20 children who huddled inside a school in Grenada.
“Maybe some of them thought they could have survived in their homes, but when they realized the severity of it … they came for cover,” said Urban Mason, a retired teacher who served as the shelter’s manager. “People tend to be complacent.”
One of the homes that Beryl damaged belongs to the parents of the United Nations’ executive secretary on climate change, Simon Stiell, who is from Carriacou. The storm also destroyed the home of his late grandmother.
In a statement, Stiell said that the climate crisis is worsening, faster than expected.
“Whether in my homeland of Carriacou … hammered by Hurricane Beryl, or in the heat waves and floods crippling communities in some of the world’s largest economies, it’s clear that the climate crisis is pushing disasters to record-breaking new levels of destruction,” he said.
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Grenada, known as the “Spice Isle,” is one of the world’s top exporters of nutmeg. The bulk of spices are grown in the northern part of the island, which was hit hardest by Beryl, Mitchell noted.
Beryl has broken several records, including marking the farthest east that a hurricane has formed in the tropical Atlantic in June, according to Philip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher.
The storm strengthened from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in just 42 hours, which only six other Atlantic hurricanes have done, and never before September, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.
Beryl is the second named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. Earlier last month, Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in northeastern Mexico and killed four people.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the 2024 hurricane season would be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms. The forecast called for as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.
An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes, and three major hurricanes.
Coto and Spencer-Sayers write for the Associated Press. Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. AP writers Anika Kentish in St. John, Antigua; Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Fla.; Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela; and AP videographer Lucanus Ollivierre in Kingstown, St. Vincent, contributed to this report.
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