Beryl, the first Category 4 storm ever reported, is moving toward Jamaica after making landfall on Grenada’s Carriacou Island.
Hurricane Beryl has intensified into a “potentially catastrophic” Category 5 storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said, as it headed toward Jamaica after downing power lines, damaging homes and flooding streets elsewhere. islands in the southeastern Caribbean.
Beryl, the first Category 4 storm ever reported, made landfall on Monday on Grenada’s Carriacou island.
“Beryl is now a potentially catastrophic Category 5 hurricane,” the NHS said in a bulletin at 11pm (0300 GMT). “Fluctuations in strength are likely… but Beryl is still expected to be near major hurricane intensity” as it moves through the Caribbean.
Carriacou took a direct hit earlier in the day by the storm’s “extremely dangerous eyewall,” with sustained winds of more than 240 kilometers per hour (150 mph), the NHC said.
Nearby islands, including Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, also experienced “catastrophic winds and life-threatening storm surge,” the hurricane center said.
“Within half an hour, Carriacou was leveled,” Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said at a news conference. He said one person had died, but authorities had not yet been able to assess the situation on the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, where communications were largely cut off.
“We hope there are no other deaths or injuries,” he said. “But let’s keep in mind the challenge we have in Carriacou and Petite Martinique.” Mitchell added that the government will send people on Tuesday morning to assess the situation on the islands.
Streets from the island of Saint Lucia south to Grenada were littered with shoes, trees, downed power lines and other debris. Some banana trees were broken in half by the force of the wind.
“Right now, I’m heartbroken,” said Vichelle Clark King as she surveyed her sand and water-filled store in Barbados’ capital, Bridgetown.
The storm is expected to pass near Jamaica on Wednesday, the Miami-based hurricane center said.
The government of Jamaica issued a hurricane warning for the country, while tropical storm warnings were in effect for parts of the southern coast of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Effect of climate change
The last strong hurricane to hit the southeastern Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.
Beryl became the first Atlantic hurricane of the 2024 season on Saturday and quickly strengthened to a Category 4.
Experts say such a powerful storm forming at the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from early June to late November, is extremely rare and that climate change likely contributed to its rapid formation.
Global warming has helped raise temperatures in the North Atlantic to historic highs, causing more surface water to evaporate, which in turn provides additional fuel for more intense hurricanes with higher wind speeds.
“Climate change is setting the stage for more intense hurricanes to form,” said Christopher Rozoff, an atmospheric scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.
New Jersey meteorologist Andra Garner noted that Beryl jumped from a Category 1 storm to a Category 4 storm in less than 10 hours.
Their research has shown that as water temperatures have risen over the past five decades, it has become twice as likely for storms to transform from minor thunderstorms to major hurricanes in less than 24 hours.
In May, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted above-normal hurricane activity in the Atlantic this year, also pointing to unusually high ocean temperatures.
At Chillin’ restaurant in Kingston, waiter Welton Anderson said he felt calm despite the hurricane’s approach.
“Jamaicans wait until the last minute. The night before or in the morning panic sets in. It’s because we’re used to it,” she said.
On other eastern Caribbean islands, residents boarded up windows, stockpiled food and filled their cars with fuel as the storm approached.
Authorities in Mexico have also begun preparing for Beryl’s arrival later this week, with the federal government issuing a statement urging authorities and the public to exercise “extreme caution.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
