Hurricane ‘Beryl’ pummels Caribbean, now a Category 5
BRIDGETOWN/ST. GEORGE’S, BARBADOS—Hurricane “Beryl” strengthened into a top-level Category 5 storm late Monday after it swept across several islands in the southeastern Caribbean, dumping heavy rain and unleashing devastating winds.
Beryl is now the earliest Category 5 storm in the Atlantic on record, and has developed into a “potentially catastrophic” hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 260 kilometers per hour, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Early in the day, Grenada’s Carriacou Island took a direct hit from the storm’s “extremely dangerous eyewall,” with sustained winds at upwards of 150 miles, the NHC said.
Nearby islands, including St. Vincent and the Grenadines, also experienced “catastrophic winds and life-threatening storm surge,” according to the NHC.
“In half an hour, Carriacou was flattened,” Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told a press conference.
“We are not yet out of the woods,” Mitchell added, noting that while no deaths had been reported so far, he could not say for sure that none had occurred.
Extremely rare
Video obtained by AFP from St. George’s in Grenada showed heavy downpours with trees buffeted by gusts.
Later on social media, Mitchell said the government was working to get relief supplies to both Carriacou and the island of Petite Martinique on Tuesday.
Beryl became the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season on Saturday and quickly gathered strength.
Experts say that such a powerful storm forming this early in the Atlantic is extremely rare.
