A powerful hurricane began sweeping across the eastern Caribbean archipelago on Monday, causing devastating damage to Carriacou, a small island north of Grenada, officials said.
In a press conference broadcast on social media, Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said Carriacou was “leveled” in just half an hour and government officials also expected “extremely severe” damage on the neighboring island of Petite Martinique.
One death was reported in Grenada’s capital, St. George’s, after a tree fell on a home. “This is shocking,” Mitchell said. “The person who died was actually a relative of one of the people who spent the last 36 hours with us at the National Emergency Operations Center.”
As a Category 4 storm, Hurricane Beryl — the first of this year’s hurricane season — left a trail of destruction in its path as it made landfall: trees snapped in half, massive storm surges and roofs blown off homes as it made landfall. Winds reach speeds of over 150 miles per hour.
Officials said there was no power in Carriacou and Petite Martinique and communications were difficult.
The extent of the damage in Carriacou and Petite Martinique will not be clear until Tuesday morning, Mr Mitchell said, adding that he would travel to Carriacou as soon as it was safe to do so.
“There is devastation everywhere,” the prime minister said. “So we hope that we will have to move quickly into damage assessment and recovery and stabilization mode.”
Initial reports of damage also emerged in the capital as the storm passed over the island. The roof of a police station was blown off and a hospital had to evacuate patients to a lower floor after its roof was damaged.
Beryl is an unusual occurrence in an already unusually busy hurricane season that runs through late November. According to forecasters, it is the third-largest storm ever to hit the Atlantic in June — and the first time a Category 4 storm has appeared this early in the season.
“Incredible is not powerful enough. This is really an unusual storm,” said Noah Bergren, a meteorologist at Fox 35 Orlando in Florida. said on X“The storm will move quickly, but in a few hours it will be like hell on earth.”
The storm later strengthened into a Category 5 storm as it made landfall in the southeastern Caribbean islands.
The storm was also historic in the short time it lasted. to intensify from a tropical depression into a major hurricane — 42 hours — was a direct result of above-average sea surface temperatures. The rapid escalation is a feat recorded only six other times in Atlantic hurricane history.
Officials in Barbados said Monday that the island had been spared the worst of Hurricane Beryl.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said in a national broadcast from the island’s emergency operations center that up to 20 fishing boats, including two popular cruise ships, may have sunk. But, she added, “It could have been a lot worse for us.”
So far, about 40 homes have suffered roof or structural damage, Mottley said, although that number is expected to rise as more than 400 residents have returned home from shelters.
People across the Eastern Caribbean began preparing for the storm over the weekend, including those shopping for last-minute necessities.
“Hurricane is not something we take lightly as a family,” said Fleur Mathurin, who lives in St. Lucia, where some areas of the island are without power. “My family, my grandmother, my great-grandchildren, have been through Allen and Gilbert, this is something they always preach to us.”
As of Monday afternoon, the storm was expected to continue moving through the Caribbean and make landfall in Jamaica with winds that could reach hurricane force by Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Julius Gittens contributed reporting from Christ Church, Barbados; Linda Straker from Gouyave, Grenada; Kenton X. Chance from Kingstown, St. Vincent; Sharefil Gaillard from Gros Islet, St. Lucia; and Maria Abi-Habib from Mexico City.
