Hurricane Beryl barrels toward Jamaica as record-breaking Category 5 storm after leaving Caribbean islands in ruins

CNN
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Hurricane Beryl, now a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm, has set its sights on Jamaica after killing at least one person and wreaking havoc on entire Caribbean islands on Monday.

The storm is expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surge to Jamaica on Wednesday and make landfall in the Cayman Islands on Thursday, where a hurricane watch has been issued.

The storm continues to break records as it kicks off an unusually early hurricane season as the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record — and only the second Atlantic storm of such strength to be recorded in July.

It took just minutes for Beryl to sweep across Grenada on Monday, destroying buildings and cutting off power and phone service to nearly everyone on the island, the governor’s office said.

“In half an hour, Carriacou was razed to the ground,” Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said Monday.

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A path of “immense destruction, pain and suffering” has been passed through the neighboring nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where at least one person has been killed, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said. Parts of the island, including hospitals, have no electricity and others are without water.

About 90 percent of homes on Union Island were damaged or destroyed, Gonsalves said. Hundreds of other homes and several schools, churches and government buildings on St. Vincent also suffered serious damage.

“Tomorrow we rise with our commitment and conviction to rebuild our lives and those of our families,” Gonsalves said Monday evening.

Although Beryl is likely to fluctuate in strength in the coming days, it is expected to remain an “extremely dangerous major hurricane” – Category 3 or higher – through midweek, the hurricane center said.

The hurricane will continue to bring high winds, torrential rains and dangerous seas extending well beyond its center across much of the Caribbean. Even if Beryl does not make landfall in Jamaica, its outer bands will have significant impacts.

• Jamaica braces for dire consequences: A hurricane warning has been issued for Jamaica, where hurricane conditions will affect the island on Wednesday. Tropical storm-force winds are expected early Wednesday. Storm surge could raise water levels up to 3 to 5 feet above normal tide levels and rainfall of 4 to 8 inches with isolated totals of up to 12 inches is expected.

• Dominican Republic and Haiti under storm alert: The southern coasts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic remain under tropical storm warnings, with tropical storm conditions beginning Tuesday. A storm surge of up to 3 feet is possible and rainfall totals could reach 6 inches.

• State of emergency extended in Grenada: The order was extended through July 7 because of the extensive damage caused by the storm, said Neila K. Ettienne, a spokeswoman for the prime minister’s office. About 95 percent of the island of Grenada is without power, she said. Telecommunications are also down, and some people no longer have access to the internet.

• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines rush to restore power: Local authorities are “working hard, urgently and with great concentration to ensure that electricity is available in some places tonight,” Prime Minister Gonsalves said Monday. Many trees have fallen on power lines. Despite this, government buildings will reopen Tuesday and the prime minister urged business owners to open, if possible.

• Barbados fishing industry hit hard: Although Barbados was spared from the storm, strong waves damaged many fishing boats, representing a massive loss to the country’s fishing industry. At least 20 vessels sank, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said Monday. Some fishermen in Bridgetown The fishing complex watched helplessly as violent waves crashed into boats or swept them under water, CNN affiliate CBC reported. “There’s nothing we can do but stand there and watch the total destruction – our livelihoods collapse,” one resident told CBC.

• Cricket team and supporters stranded: Some cricket fans who had travelled to Barbados for the T20 World Cup – and even the winning Indian team itself – were unable to leave the island as Hurricane Beryl forced Grantley Adams International Airport to suspend operations. But the Indian team is likely to return home on Tuesday after the airport is scheduled to reopen, Mottley said.

Beryl’s rapid strengthening and early arrival are very rare for the Atlantic hurricane season and are a worrying indicator that this season will be far from normal amid global warming due to human-induced climate change.

The storm has already broken numerous records. On Sunday, it became the earliest major hurricane (defined as a Category 3 or higher hurricane) to make landfall in the Atlantic in 58 years and the only one to reach Category 4 status in June.

It is also the strongest hurricane ever recorded to pass through the southern Windward Islands, located at the eastern end of the Caribbean Sea, according to NOAA data dating back to 1851.

The hurricane was able to spread because the ocean is now as warm as it normally would be at the height of hurricane season, said Jim Kossin, a hurricane expert and science adviser to the nonprofit First Street Foundation.

“Hurricanes don’t know what month it is, they just know their surrounding environment,” Kossin told CNN. “Beryl is breaking records for June because it thinks it’s September.”

The warm ocean temperatures fueling Beryl’s unprecedented strengthening “certainly have a human footprint,” Kossin said.

Forecasters have warned that the hurricane season is about to become unusually active. National Weather Service meteorologists are predicting 17 to 25 named storms this season, 13 of which will become hurricanes.

Monica Garrett, Abel Alvarado, Brandon Miller, Sahar Akbarzai, Mary Gilbert, Hira Humayun, Robert Shackelford, Isaac Yee, CNN Duarte Mendonca and Manveena Suri contributed to this report.