A dangerous and extremely powerful Hurricane Beryl made landfall on Monday on the Caribbean isla🌳nd of Carriacou after becoming the earliest storm o♐f Category 4 strength to form in the Atlantic, fuelled by record warm waters.
The hurricane had winds up to 150 mph (240 kph), just shy of a Category 5 storm, as it blew off roofs, uprooted trees and c🅺aused other damage on Carriacou, one of the islands of Grenada, and elsewhere in the southeast Caribbean.
"This is an extremely dꦰangerous and life-threatening situation,” the National Hurricane Centre said.
Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, Grenada, Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as thousands of people hunkered down in homes and shelters. The last strong hurricane to hit the southꦛeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed doz﷽ens of people in Grenada.
NBC Radio in St. Vincent and the Grenadines 🐟said it received reports of roofs being torn off churches and schools as communications began collapsing across the southeast Caribbean.
“Jesus Christ!” one woman could be🍒𒁃 heard yelling in a video that shows tin roofs flying through the air.
Late Monday morning, Beryl was located about 30 miles (50 kilometers) ꦗnortheast of the island of Grenada, with maximum sustained winds of 150 miles (240 kilometers) per hour, and was moving west-northwest at 20 mph (31 kph).
Officials in Barbados received more than a dozen reports of roof damage, fallen trees and downed electric posts across the island, said K♓erry Hinds, emergency managementꦇ director.
Once Beryl passes, drones will assess damage and speed up respon🦂se, said Wilfred Abrahams, minister of home affairs and information. Before, it used to take two hours to receive information as crews fanned out across the island, versus seven minutes with drones, he noted.
A tropical storm warning was in effect for St. Lucia, Martinique and Trinidad. A tropical storm watch was issued for Haiti's entire southern coast, and from Punta Palenque in the Dominican Republic west to the border with Haiti. ♛A hurricane watch was issued for Jamaica.
Forecasters warned of a life-threatening storm surge of up ౠto 9 feet (3 metre🧔s) in areas where Beryl made landfall, with 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15 centimeters) of rain for Barbados and nearby islands and possibly 10 inches in some areas (25 centimeters), especially in Grenada and the Grenadines.
The storm was expected to weaken slightly over the Caribbean Sea on a path that would take it jus🅰t south of Jamaica and later toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 1.
“It should be emphasised that Beryl is forecast to remain a significant hurricane during its entir🅰e trek across the Caribbean region,” the National Hu🌄rricane Centre said.
Officials in some southeast Caribbean islands announced controlled shutdowns of electricity and warned of water outages ahead of the storm, urging people to seek shelter. They warned of landslides and flash flooding as they shuttered schools꧂, airports and government offices.
Hours before the storm, Barbadian Michael Beckles said he feared the worst for his island dౠespite witnessing how people were taking it seriouslౠy.
“As prepared as we can 🎶try to be, there🃏 are a lot of things that we can't control,” he said. “Electricity probably will go. We'll have issues with water. There are a lot of houses that are not ready for a storm like this.”
Historic hurricane
Beryl strengthened from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in just 42 hours — a feat accomplished only s♌ix other times in Atlantic hurricane history, and with September 1 as the earliest date, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.
It also was the earliest Category 4 Atlantic hurricane on record, besting Hurricane Dennis, which bec🎶ame a Category 4 storm on July 8, 2005.
“This is a dangerous hurricane for the Windward Islands," said hurriౠcane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry, who warned that when Beryl comes ashore, “it's going to be a very serious situation.”
Beryl amassed its strength from record warm waters that are hotter now th🦄an they would be at the peak of hurricane season in September, he said.
Beryl also marked the farthest east that a hurricane has formed in the tropical Atlantic in June, breaking a record set in 1933, according to P🐼hilip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher.
Among those weathering the storm was Jaswinderpal Parmar of Fresno, California, who had travelled to Barbados for 😼Saturday's Twenty20 World Cup final, cricket's biggest event. He and his family were now stuck ther🧸e with scores of other fans, their flights cancelled on Sunday.
He said by phone that it's the first time he has ex🥀perienced a hurricane, with heavy rain starting at midnight. He and his family have been praying, as well as taking calls from concerned friends and family as far away as India.
“We couldn't sleep last night,” Parmar, 47, said. “We were keeping an eye on it.𓃲"
Looking ahead
Even as Beryl bore down on the southeast Caribbean, government offic💯ials warned about a cluster of thunderstorms mimicking the hurricane's path that have a 70 per cent chance of b꧃ecoming a tropical depression.
“There's always a c🌠oncern when you have back-to-back storms,” Lowry said. “If two storms move over the same area or nearby, the first storm weakens the infrastructure, so the secondary system doesn't need to be as strong to have serious impacts.”
Beryl is the s𒆙econd named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from ♉June 1 to November 30. Earlier this month, Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in northeast Mexico and killed four people.
On Sunday night, a tropical depression near the eastern Mexico coastal city of Veracruz briefly strengthened into Tropical Storm Chris, the third named sto🅘rm of the season. It weakened on Monday and was downgraded back to a tropical depression forecast to move inland. The National Hurricane Centre early Monday reported heavy rainfall and flooding, with the possibility of mudslides, before the storm dissipates.
The National Oceanic and At❀mospheric Adminis🥃tration predicts the 2024 hurricane season is likely to be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms. The forecast calls 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.
