Storm surge is photographed on the Malecón in Santo Domingo after Hurricane Beryl struck on July 2, 2024. Hurricane Beryl was hurtling towards Jamaica as a Category 5 superstorm on July 2 after killing at least five people and causing widespread destruction in a devastating scourge across the southeastern Caribbean. (Photo by Francesco Spotorno/AFP)
KINGSTON, Jamaica — After killing at least five people and causing widespread destruction across the southeastern Caribbean, Hurricane Beryl moved toward Jamaica on Tuesday, threatening deadly winds and a storm surge as it approached.
The powerful hurricane, unusual for an early season outbreak, weakened on Tuesday but remained an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm and was expected to pass “near or over” Jamaica on Wednesday, forecasters said.
Beryl is the first storm since the National Hurricane Center’s records began reaching Category 4 levels in June, and is also the earliest storm to reach Category 5 in July.
“Jamaica should be in a safe location by nightfall and be prepared to remain indoors throughout the day on Wednesday,” NHC Director Michael Brennan said in a video update.
A hurricane warning has been issued for the island nation, with life-threatening strong winds and storm surges expected, as well as rain and flash flooding, the NHC said.
Emergency response preparations were underway across Jamaica, including stockpiling food in evacuation centres, securing people’s homes and pulling boats out of the water.
“I urge all Jamaicans to stockpile food, batteries, candles and water. Keep important documents and remove any trees or objects that may pose a risk to property,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said on Twitter.
A hurricane warning has also been issued for the Cayman Islands, with the NHC saying Beryl is “expected to pass near or over the Cayman Islands late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.”
Beryl has already claimed at least three lives in Grenada, where it made landfall on Monday, as well as one in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and one in Venezuela, officials said.
Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said the island of Carriacou, which was hit directly by the eye of the storm, was largely isolated with homes, communications and fuel facilities destroyed.
“Apart from a brief satellite call this morning, there has been virtually no communication with Carriacou for the past 12 hours,” Mitchell told a news conference.
About 9,000 people live on the 13.5-square-mile (35-square-kilometer) island. At least two people were killed and a third was killed on the mainland island of Grenada when a tree fell on a house, Mitchell said.
In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, one person was reported to have died in the storm on the island of Bequia, while authorities said a man died after being swept away by a flooded river in Venezuela’s northeastern coastal state of Sucre.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed concern about the region, saying at the meeting that “WHO stands ready to assist national authorities with any health needs.”
Experts say it is highly unusual for such a powerful storm to form at this time of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from early June to late November.
Hurricanes are primarily generated in the ocean, and many factors influence their formation and intensity, with heat being an important factor.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Beryl “sets a worrying precedent in what is expected to be a very active hurricane season.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in late May that this year is expected to be an “exceptional” hurricane season, with up to seven hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.
United Nations climate change official Simon Steele, who has family on Carriacou, said climate change was “pushing the disaster to new, record-breaking levels of destruction”.
“Disasters on a scale that was once the stuff of science fiction are becoming a meteorological reality, with the climate crisis being a major cause,” he said Monday, reporting that his parents’ property had been damaged.
In its latest update at 2100 GMT, the NHC said Beryl recorded maximum sustained winds of 155 mph (250 kph) on Tuesday as it headed towards Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
Hurricane watches and tropical storm warnings were also issued for parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
