Hurricane Beryl devastates south-east Caribbean, killing 4
Hurricane Beryl roared through open waters yesterday as a monstrous Category 5 storm on a path that would take it near Jamaica and the Cayman Islands after earlier making landfall in the southeast Caribbean, killing at least four people.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica and a hurricane watch for Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac.
Beryl was forecast to start losing intensity last night but still to be near major hurricane strength when it passes near Jamaica today, the Cayman Islands tomorrow and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, according to the National Hurricane Centre.
The centre warned that Beryl was expected to bring lifethreatening 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.
“It is, however, not a time to panic.”
Beryl is the earliest Category 5 storm ever to form in the Atlantic, fuelled by record warm waters.
Early yesterday, the storm was located about 300 miles southeast of Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic.
It had top winds of 165 mph and was moving west-northwest at 22 mph.
“Beryl remains an impressive Category 5 hurricane,” the National hurricane centre said.
A tropical storm warning was in place for the entire southern coast of Hispaniola, an island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
As the storm barrel led through the Caribbean Sea, three people were reported killed in Grenadaand another inst vincent and the Grenadines.
One fatality in Grenada occurred after a tree fell on a house, Kerryne James, minister of climate resilience, environment and renewable energy, said.
She said the nearby islands of Carriacou and Petit Martinique sustained the greatest damage, with water, food and baby formula a priority.
“The situation is grim,” Grenadian prime minister Dickon Mitchell told a news conference yesterday.
“There is no power, and there is almost complete destruction of homes and buildings on the island.”
Mr Mitchell added: “The possibility that there may be more fatalities remains a grim reality .”
Meanwhile, Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of st vincent and the Grenadines, promised to rebuild the archipelago.
He noted that 90 per cent of homes on Union Island were destroyed, and that “similar levels of devastation” were expected on the islands of Myreau and Canouan.
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.
The possibility that there may be more fatalities remains a grim reality
Grenadian prime minister Dickon Mitchell