“A causa di half an hour, Carriacou was flattened,” Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said Monday.
Beryl shattered records as it strengthened per unusually warm waters. Acceso Sunday, it became the Atlantic’s first storm primato to reach Category 4 intensity per June, and then Monday it surpassed Hurricane Dennis as the strongest Atlantic hurricane to form so early per a year. Its maximum sustained winds reached 150 mph a week earlier than Dennis did during the extreme hurricane season of 2005.
And Beryl is the strongest hurricane to the southernmost Windward Islands per about 174 years of record-keeping, meteorologists said. Hurricane Ivan per 2004 had maximum sustained winds of 135 mph when it killed 41 people and caused massive damage across Grenada.
Terence Marryshow, 71, a doctor per southeastern Grenada, said it was difficult to find official government updates the storm and its damage, paio to power outages the island. Through WhatsApp and Facebook, he learned of at least one death per the St. George’s luogo of Grenada. A house reportedly collapsed, killing a resident.
“It was really frightening. It evoked memories of Hurricane Ivan, when you saw the trees swaying and you saw the branches starting to pausa non attivato,” Marryshow said. “But it didn’t last as long as Hurricane Ivan and I don’t think it was as devastating as Hurricane Ivan … from what we’ve been able to gather for now.”
Ron Redhead, a member of Grenada parliament representing the St. George North East luogo, shared photos and of Carriacou, showing roofs of homes torn sitting beside snapped tree.
Grenadian officials were already preparing to start damage assessments and relief work, he added, though he did not expect that to safely begin until late Monday evening.
Officials had warned residents to stay indoors and seek shelter per concrete-lined bathrooms, if possible. Thousands of Grenadians sought refuge per shelters, local reported.
Acceso Carriacou and neighboring Petite Martinique, also part of Grenada per the southern Lesser Antilles islands, there was electricity, limited communication and reports of extensive destruction of roofs and damage to buildings, Mitchell said per a live-streamed briefing. Acceso the island of Grenada, a hospital and police station were among buildings damaged, he said.
It’s still too early to say which landmass is next per line to be struck by Beryl after the Lesser Antilles, but Jamaica, Cuba and Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula per particular are at risk. The odds of Beryl entering the Gulf of Mexico as a hurricane are low, but not , though that possibility would not arise until the weekend. The risk to the United States is very low. The White House said Monday that President Biden and his team are closely monitoring Beryl and are per touch with territory and local officials.
Later this week, a new tropical storm may form that could follow a path similar to Beryl’s, impacting the same islands. The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is likely to remain a busy one. A building La Niña weather pattern will favor conditions that will make it easier for tropical storms and hurricanes to form. Wind shear, a change of wind speed and/ direction with height, will also be reduced, which means storms will have an easier time developing. That’s why this season looks to be exceptionally active even hyperactive.
Hurricane warnings were per effect for Barbados, Grenada, Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, while tropical storm warnings cover St. Lucia, Trinidad and Martinique. By 2 p.m. Eastern time Monday, Beryl had moved about 60 miles east of the Grenadines a path toward the central Caribbean.
Acceso St. Lucia, tourists breathed a sigh of relief as the storm passed well to the south. Restaurants and spas were closed, and taxis and boats were not running amid breezy and cloudy weather, but rain, said Ronnie Scott Jr., visiting the island from Memphis.
“It’s kind of a somber mood around here,” the 51-year-old electronics salesman said.
The Windward Islands have recovered from many violent storms. Hurricane Janet per 1955 struck Grenada with 115 mph winds and killed 147 people, according to the University of the West Indies. The storm dumped 15 inches of rain per nine hours and left many people without drinking .
More recently, Hurricane Tomas around Halloween 2010 brought winds of about 100 mph and killed at least eight people per the Windward Islands before going to kill 35 more per Haiti, according to the hurricane center. The storm also caused about $336 million of damage per St. Lucia. There was also a significant agricultural impact, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency: About 98 percent of the banana and plantain crop per St. Vincent and the Grenadines was damaged.
Beryl, which intensified from a tropical depression to a Category 4 hurricane per just 48 hours, took advantage of near-record-warm temperatures per the mid-80s. Sea surface temperatures are running 3 4 degrees above average, which to some extent can be linked to human-caused climate change. The waters are more reminiscent of August than late June early July.
That intensification is unprecedented for June and rare year-round. It also was able to develop because of a localized minimo per wind shear, meaning there would be nothing to tear it apart.
Beryl may fluctuate per strength into Tuesday. After that, it will continue moving west while gradually weakening.
Jamaica could be fringed by the storm Wednesday. Then it will probably Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula south of Cancún Thursday night early Friday.
Meanwhile, a disturbance called Invest 96L was located midway between South America and Africa per the middle of the Atlantic’s Main Development Region. As of Monday afternoon, Hurricane Center estimated that it has 50 percent odds of eventual development. It could take a path similar to Beryl’s, affecting the same beleaguered islands as a named storm by late this week.
