Jamaica braces for impact as Category 4 Hurricane Beryl approaches – Firstpost

Hurricane Beryl raged across open waters as a powerful Category 4 storm toward Jamaica on Tuesday, after having previously torn across islands in the southeastern Caribbean, killing at least six people.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. Beryl is weakening but is still close to being a major hurricane as it passes near or over Jamaica on Wednesday morning, near the Cayman Islands on Thursday and near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, the National Hurricane Center said.

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

Beryl became the first storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic on Monday night, peaking at 165 mph (270 km/h) on Tuesday before weakening to a still-destructive Category 4. On Tuesday night, the storm was located about 300 miles (480 kilometers) east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. The storm had top sustained winds of 150 mph (240 km/h) and was moving west-northwest at 22 mph (35 km/h), the center said.

Beryl was expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surges to Jamaica, prompting authorities to warn residents in flood-prone areas to prepare to evacuate.

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

Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said Jamaica is right in Beryl’s path.

“We are most concerned about Jamaica, where we expect the core of a major hurricane to pass by 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 before nightfall (Tuesday). Be prepared to stay there through Wednesday.”

Jamaica is experiencing storm surges of 1.8 to 2.7 metres above normal tide level, as well as heavy rainfall.

“This is a major hazard in the Caribbean, especially with the mountainous islands,” Brennan said. “This could cause life-threatening flooding and mudslides in some of these areas.”

A tropical storm warning was issued for the entire southern coast of Hispaniola, an island bordering Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

As the storm raged across the Caribbean Sea, rescue crews spread out to southeastern islands to assess the extent of the damage Beryl had caused on Carriacou, an island in Grenada.

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

According to Environment Minister Kerryne James, one person died in Grenada after a tree fell on a house.

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

“The situation is grim,” Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told a news conference on Tuesday. “There is no power and there is almost complete destruction of homes and buildings across the island. The roads are impassable and in many cases they are closed due to the amount of debris strewn across the streets.”

Mitchell added: “The possibility of further deaths remains a grim reality as movement remains severely restricted.”

Meanwhile, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves vowed in a statement early Tuesday to rebuild the archipelago, noting that 90% 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 were evacuated from Union Island by ferry, arriving at the Kingstown Ferry Terminal in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on Tuesday.

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

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

Grenadian resident Roy O’Neale, 77, lost his home to Ivan and rebuilt it stronger. His current home sustained minimal damage from Beryl.

“I felt the wind whistling, and then for about two hours, it was really, really scary at times,” he said over the phone. “Tree branches were flying everywhere.”

Hundreds of people were in shelters across the southeastern Caribbean, including 50 adults and 20 children who were crowded into a school in Grenada.

“Maybe some of them thought they could have survived in their homes, but when they realized how bad it was … they ran for cover,” said Urban Mason, a retired teacher who served as the shelter’s manager. “People tend to be complacent.”

One of the homes damaged by Beryl belongs to the parents of UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, who is from Carriacou. The storm also destroyed the home of his late grandmother.

Stiell said in a statement that the climate crisis is getting worse, and faster than expected.

“Whether it’s my home country of Carriacou, which has been hit by Hurricane Beryl, or the heatwaves and floods ravaging communities in some of the world’s largest economies, it’s clear that the climate crisis is driving disasters to record-breaking new levels of destruction,” he said.

Grenada, known as the “spice isle,” is one of the world’s largest exporters of nutmeg. Mitchell noted that most of the spice is grown in the northern part of the island, which was hit hardest by Beryl.

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