Hurricane Beryl arrived in Mexico this Friday after hitting the Caribbean causing great destruction in Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, where the UN agencies have launched the emergency response in collaboration with local authorities.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned that it is It is highly likely that this year’s hurricane season will be very long and devastating.
“Unfortunately, this is not the last we will hear from Beryl in the coming days… will continue to cause damage“We are very excited about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis told a news conference in Geneva.
Nullis recalled that Beryl was the first Category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean.
The storm devastated Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines after making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Monday and then lashing Jamaica on Wednesday.
The wind ripped off the roofs
The Red Cross and Red Crescent reported that the hurricane’s winds put risk the lives of the most vulnerable population in Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados and Jamaica.
“Our colleagues in St. Vincent reported that people were arriving from Union Island to St. Vincent with nothing but the clothes on their backs,” said International Federation Disaster Management Officer for the Caribbean, Rhea Pierre, in a video conference from Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Pierre added that government shelters were damaged while the roofs of schools, churches and other buildings were torn away by the wind and the people who had taken shelter in them had to be relocated.
Residents of Union Island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines board a ferry to reach a shelter from Hurricane Beryl.
Entry to Mexico through the Yucatan Peninsula
Beryl made landfall in Mexico on Friday, battering the coast with winds of 177 km/h before moving slowly inland. The storm remains a Category 2 hurricane. and is expected to weaken as it crosses the Yucatan Peninsula and emerges into the Gulf of Mexico.
“We have prepared for this hurricane season and I would say that a storm this strong this early is extremely rare. It is also a warning that The hurricane season promises to be very intense” said Vanessa Huguenin, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOHA).OCHA).
Disaster response teams are on their way to the affected Caribbean islands and An appeal will be launched soononce the damage assessment is complete, Huguenin added.
Intense hurricane season
Preliminary, unconfirmed figures indicate that around 40,000 people have been affected in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, while 100,000 people have been affected in Grenada and 120,000 in Jamaica.
The Atlantic storm season runs from June to late November, and this year 17 to 25 named storms are expected (the average is 14).
According to the WMO, Eight to thirteen storms are expected to become hurricanes.more than the average of seven, including between four and seven major hurricanes (the average is three). A hurricane is considered major when it reaches category 3, 4 or 5 on the Saffir Simpson scale, with winds of 178 km/h or more.
“This new reality of Unprecedented hurricanes are becoming an annual reality and omnipresent for Caribbean countries facing climate change,” stressed Rhea Pierre, stating that “the severity of the damage caused by Hurricane Beryl is tangible and devastating.”
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