Hurricane Beryl slams into open waters as a monstrous Category 4 storm

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada (AP) — Hurricane Beryl sped across open waters Tuesday as a powerful Category 4 storm headed toward Jamaica after earlier landfalls crossing the islands of the south-east of the Caribbeankilling at least six people.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. Beryl was weakening but was still expected to have major hurricane strength when it passes near or over Jamaica early Wednesday, near the Cayman Islands on Thursday and in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

A hurricane warning has been issued for the southern coast of Haiti and the eastern coast of Yucatan. Belize has issued a tropical storm warning extending from its southern border with Mexico to Belize City.

Beryl became the first storm to strengthen into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic on Monday night, reaching peak winds of 165 mph (270 kph) on Tuesday before weakening to a still-destructive Category 4. As of Tuesday night, the storm was about 300 miles (480 kilometers) east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. Its winds were 150 mph (240 kph) and it was moving west-northwest at 22 mph (35 kph), the center said.

Beryl was expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surges to Jamaica, where officials warned residents in flood-prone areas to prepare to evacuate.

“I encourage all Jamaicans to view the hurricane as a serious threat,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said in a public address on Tuesday. “However, this is not the time to panic.”

In Miami, National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said Jamaica appears to be in Beryl’s direct path.

“We are particularly concerned about Jamaica, where we expect 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 there until Wednesday.”

Storm surges of 1.8 to 2.7 metres (6 to 9 feet) above normal tide levels are likely in Jamaica, along with heavy rainfall.

“This is a major risk in the Caribbean, particularly in the mountainous islands,” Brennan said. “It could cause flash flooding and potentially deadly mudslides in some of these areas.”

A tropical storm warning was in effect for the entire southern coast of Hispaniola, an island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Trail of Devastation

As the storm moved across the Caribbean Sea, rescue teams from southeastern islands deployed to determine the extent of the damage Beryl inflicted on Carriacou, an island in Grenada.

Three people were killed in Grenada and Carriacou, and another in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, authorities said. Two other deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where five people are missing, authorities said. Some 25,000 people in that region were also affected by heavy rains from Beryl.

One person died in Grenada after a tree fell on a house, Environment Minister Kerryne James told The Associated Press.

She said Carriacou and Petit Martinique suffered the most damage, with dozens of homes and businesses destroyed in Carriacou.

“The situation is dire,” Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said at a news conference on Tuesday. “There is no electricity and the houses and buildings on the island are almost completely destroyed. The roads are impassable and in many cases they are cut off because of the large amount of debris that is scattered everywhere.”

Mitchell added: “The possibility of more deaths remains a sad reality as movement remains very restricted.”

For his part, Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, vowed to rebuild the archipelago in a statement released early Tuesday. He noted that 90 percent of homes on Union Island had been destroyed and that “similar levels of devastation” were expected on the islands of Myreau and Canouan.

Several people evacuated Union Island by ferry and arrived at the Kingstown ferry terminal in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Tuesday.

Sharon DeRoche, one of the evacuees, said Union Island was in terrible shape. She endured the hurricane in her bathroom before fleeing. “It was a tough four hours of fighting with six of us in that small space,” she said.

The last major hurricane to hit the southeastern Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.

Roy O’Neale, a 77-year-old Grenada resident, lost his home to Ivan and rebuilt it better. His current home suffered little damage from Beryl.

“I felt the wind whistling, and for two hours straight, it was really, really terrifying at times,” he said by phone. “Tree branches were flying everywhere.”

Hundreds of people have taken refuge in shelters in the southeastern Caribbean, including 50 adults and 20 children crammed into a school in Grenada.

“Some of them may have thought they could survive in their homes, but when they realized the gravity of the situation … they came to seek shelter,” said Urban Mason, a retired teacher who served as the shelter’s director. “People tend to get complacent.”

One of the homes damaged by Beryl belongs to the parents of Simon Stiell, the UN’s executive secretary for climate change, who is from Carriacou. The storm also destroyed his late grandmother’s home.

In a statement, Stiell said the climate crisis is worsening faster than expected.

“Whether it’s in my home region of Carriacou… hit by Hurricane Beryl, or in the heatwaves and flooding crippling communities in some of the world’s largest economies, it’s clear that the climate crisis is pushing disasters to new levels of record destruction,” he said.

Grenada, nicknamed the “Spice Island,” is one of the world’s leading exporters of nutmeg. Mitchell noted that most of the spice is grown in the northern part of the island, which is most affected by Beryl.

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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press writers Anika Kentish in St. John, Antigua, Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Fla., Jorge Rueda in Caracas and Lucanus Ollivierre in Kingstown, St. Vincent, contributed to this report.