Hurricane Beryl has killed at least seven people and left “almost complete destruction” across the southeastern Caribbean on its course to Jamaica.
Thousands remain without power in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and St Lucia after the storm unleashed heavy rain and devastating winds.
“The situation is grim,” Dickon Mitchell, the Grenadian prime minister, told a news conference on Tuesday.
“There is no power, and there is almost complete destruction of homes and buildings on the island. The roads are not passable, and in many instances they are cut off because of the large quantity of debris strewn all over the streets,” he said following a visit to the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
“The possibility that there may be more fatalities remains a grim reality as movement is still highly restricted.”
Advertisement
Officials said Carriacou’s main health facility, the Princess Royal Hospital, and its airport and marinas were damaged or destroyed along with about 98 per cent of the buildings on the island.
The island’s crops had also been ruined. “There is literally no vegetation left anywhere on the island of Carriacou, the mangroves are totally destroyed,” Mitchell said.
One resident of Union Island, which lies off St Vincent and the Grenadines north of Carriacou, said that virtually every building on the island was destroyed or badly damaged.
“There are hardly any buildings left standing. Houses are flattened, roads are blocked, the electricity poles are down in the streets,” Katrina Coy told the BBC.
“Literally, almost the whole island is homeless,” she said.
Advertisement
Three people were killed in Grenada and Carriacou, and another in St Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said. Other deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where five people are missing, officials said.
With Hurricane Beryl closing in on Jamaica, Andrew Holness, the prime minister, announced a nationwide curfew will be imposed on Wednesday from 6am to 6pm.
“I urge all Jamaicans to stock up on food, batteries, candles, and water. Secure your critical documents and remove any trees or items that could endanger your property,” Holness wrote on X/Twitter.
Beryl is likely to “pass near or over” Jamaica by Wednesday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The centre’s director, Dr Michael Brennan, warned it could have “catastrophic” consequences for Jamaica with widespread damage to homes, power lines, and infrastructure.
Advertisement
“We could see the potential, obviously, of the core of a major hurricane moving across Jamaica with the potential for devastating to catastrophic wind damage,” he added.
Brennan said the island’s south coast, including the capital Kingston, was in danger of “potentially devastating wave action on top of that storm surge,” with tide levels five to eight feet above normal “creating a life-threating situation”.
The powerful storm weakened marginally on Tuesday from a top-level category five hurricane to a category four but was still “extremely dangerous” boasting 145 mph winds, according to meteorologists.
A category three or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale is considered a major hurricane.
Beryl became the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season on Saturday and the first since NHC records began to reach the Category 4 level in June, and the earliest to reach Category 5 in July.
Advertisement
“Only five major (Category 3+) hurricanes have been recorded in the Atlantic before the first week of July,” Michael Lowry, a hurricane expert, wrote on Twitter/X.
• 2023 was hottest year on record: the climate crisis in charts
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cited climate change, the warm Atlantic Ocean temperatures and conditions related to the weather phenomenon La Niña in the Pacific for the increase in storms.
The agency has predicted an “extraordinary” hurricane season, with up to seven storms of Category 3 or higher.
