Hurricane Beryl struck Jamaica, leaving a path of “Armageddon-like” destruction in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and claiming at least seven lives across the region.
This Category 4 hurricane hit Jamaica’s southern coast on Wednesday afternoon with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 km/h), wreaking havoc on communities and severing communications as emergency teams evacuated residents from flood-prone areas.
“It’s terrible. Everything’s gone. I’m in my house and scared,” said Amoy Wellington, a 51-year-old cashier from Top Hill in Jamaica’s southern St. Elizabeth parish.
“It’s a disaster.”
By Wednesday afternoon, nearly 500 Jamaicans had sought refuge in shelters, according to Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who urged those in high-risk areas to evacuate.
“We have not seen the worst of what could happen,” Holness stated. “
We can do as much as we can do, as [is] humanly possible, and we leave the rest in the hands of God.”
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned of “life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides from heavy rainfall” across much of Jamaica and southern Haiti, with dangerous winds and storm surges expected in the Cayman Islands through early Thursday.
Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management cautioned that storm surges could raise water levels by up to 2.75 meters (9 feet).
The storm has caused fatalities, including three in Venezuela, three in Grenada, and one in SVG. Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac were under a hurricane warning, while Haiti’s southern coast and the Yucatan’s east coast were on hurricane watch.
Belize issued a tropical storm watch from its border with Mexico to Belize City.
US NHC Director Michael Brennan previously noted that Jamaica appeared to be in Beryl’s direct path.
“We are most concerned about Jamaica, where we are expecting the core of a major hurricane to pass near 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 by nightfall [on Tuesday].
Be prepared to stay in that location through Wednesday.”
“This is a big hazard in the Caribbean, especially with the mountainous islands,” Brennan added.
“This could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides in some of these areas.”
Beryl also impacted South America, with three people dead and four missing amid severe floods in Venezuela.
Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez was injured by a fallen tree while inspecting the overflowed Manzanares River in Sucre state.
Beryl became the earliest storm to reach Category 5 in the Atlantic, peaking on Tuesday with winds of 165 mph before weakening to Category 4.
Its rapid intensification was partly due to unseasonably warm sea temperatures, which scientists attribute to global warming.
In Grenada and SVG, the focus has shifted to relief and rebuilding. Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell described “Armageddon-like” scenes in Carriacou, where about 98% of buildings were damaged or destroyed, and the electrical grid and communications systems were nearly wiped out.
“Having seen it myself, there is really nothing that could prepare you to see this level of destruction. It is almost Armageddon-like.
Almost total damage or destruction of all buildings, whether they be public buildings, homes or private facilities.
Complete devastation and destruction of agriculture, complete and total destruction of the natural environment. There is literally no vegetation left anywhere on the island of Carriacou,” he said.
Evacuees from Union Island, where approximately 90% of housing was destroyed, were ferried to Kingstown, SVG’s capital.
One evacuee, Sharon DeRoche, recounted taking shelter in her bathroom with her family during the hurricane.
“It was a hard four hours battling with six of us in that little area,” she said.
Hurricane Ivan was the last major storm to hit the southeast Caribbean 20 years ago, killing dozens in Grenada.
Roy O’Neale, a 77-year-old Grenadian who rebuilt his home after Ivan, said: “I felt the wind whistling, and then for about two hours straight, it was really, really terrifying at times.
Branches of trees were flying all over the place.”
Hundreds sought shelter across the southeast Caribbean, including 50 adults and 20 children in a Grenadian school. “Maybe some of them thought they could have survived in their homes, but when they realised the severity of it … they came for cover,” said Urban Mason, a retired teacher and shelter manager.
“People tend to be complacent.”
Scientists link the human-caused climate crisis to the increased intensity, frequency, and destructive power of tropical storms, citing hotter oceans as a key factor.
One of the homes damaged by Beryl belonged to the parents of UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, who is from Carriacou.
His late grandmother’s home was also destroyed.
In a statement, Stiell said the climate crisis is worsening faster than expected.
“Whether in my homeland of Carriacou … hammered by Hurricane Beryl, or in the heatwaves and floods crippling communities in some of the world’s largest economies, it’s clear that the climate crisis is pushing disasters to record-breaking new levels of destruction,” he said.
Democratic Governors Express Concerns But Stand Firm Behind Biden