Beryl hits eastern Caribbean islands hard, remains on course for Yucatan

Hurricane Beryl unleashed powerful winds over the Eastern Caribbean on Monday, knocking down power lines and ripping roofs off buildings, with scientists saying climate change likely contributed to the storm’s rapid ferocity for this time of year.

Beryl hit the southeastern Caribbean with Category 4 strength on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale after spiraling toward the Windward Islands and threatening devastating flooding as its deadly winds gathered speed.

“This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation. Take steps now to protect yourself!” the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest advisory, urging residents of Grenada, the Grenadines and Cariobacu Island to take shelter in their homes amid forecasts of a rapid increase in gust speeds.

On the many islands dotting the eastern Caribbean, residents boarded up their windows, stocked up on food and filled their cars with fuel to wait out the cyclone.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Beryl’s eye, with dangerous tropical storm force gusts extending out to a radius of about 125 miles (201 kilometers).

Beryl’s rapid strengthening marks an unusually violent and early start to this year’s Atlantic hurricane season. It is the earliest Category 4 cyclone on record.

Scientists interviewed by Reuters They see the powerful hurricane as a harbinger of an unusually active hurricane season, a scenario made possible by record temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean.

“Climate change is loading the dice for more intense hurricanes,” said Christopher Rozoff, a scientist at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.

Andra Garner, a meteorologist based in New Jersey, said Beryl went from a Category 1 to a Category 4 storm in less than 10 hours.

Authorities in the region tried to prepare residents for the worst, including St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, who expected a natural disaster that could continue for days.

“We have to wait for this monster to come out,” he said in a speech to the nation.

In the capital Kingstown, conditions around the main port worsened on Monday morning and some damage to buildings was reported due to intensifying winds.

Video from the city showed waves crashing over a seawall and wind-swept palm trees on the shoreline.

By afternoon, Beryl had sustained maximum winds of 241 kilometers per hour (kph), with some even stronger gusts, and was located about 105 kilometers northwest of Granada.

The storm was moving west-northwest at 32 kilometers per hour and was expected to cross many of the most populated islands in the central Caribbean by Wednesday, on a path that will take it into the Gulf of Mexico, the NHC added.

The core of the hurricane will likely cause “potentially catastrophic wind damage” as it moves across parts of the Windward Islands. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada are the territories most at risk.

Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Tobago. A tropical storm warning was issued for Martinique and Trinidad, with storm watches for parts of the Dominican Republic and parts of Haiti.

Tobago has opened shelters, closed schools for Monday and canceled elective surgeries at hospitals, officials said.

The hurricane is expected to dump 80 to 1,500 millimeters of rain on Barbados and the Windward Islands on Monday, prompting the NHC to warn that it could cause flooding in vulnerable areas. Huge waves are also expected to hit the southern coasts of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in May predicted above-normal hurricane activity in the Atlantic in 2024.

Hurricane Dennis reached Category 4 status on July 8, 2005, according to NHC data, making it the second-earliest hurricane on record for the June-November season.

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