Hurricane Beryl has hit Jamaica after leaving “Armageddon-like” devastation in Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), killing at least seven people across the region.
The Category 4 storm slammed into the island’s southern coast on Wednesday afternoon with maximum winds of 140 mph (225 kph), battering communities and cutting off communications as emergency crews evacuated people in communities at risk of flooding.
“It’s terrible. We’ve lost everything. We’re scared to be in our house,” said Amoy Wellington, 51, a cashier from Top Hill, a rural town in the parish of St. Elizabeth in southern Jamaica. “It’s a disaster.”
Prime Minister Andrew Holness told reporters that about 500 Jamaicans had been taken to evacuation centres by Wednesday afternoon, and urged people in high-risk areas to evacuate. “We have not seen the worst yet,” Holness said. “We will do everything we can. [is] Do what is humanly possible and leave the rest in God’s hands.”
“Heavy rainfall is expected to cause life-threatening flooding and landslides across much of Jamaica and southern Haiti through today,” the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in an online statement, adding that dangerously strong winds and storm surges were also expected in the Cayman Islands through the early hours of Thursday.
Jamaica’s Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management Agency warned that a dangerous storm surge could raise water levels by up to 2.75 metres (9 feet).
Flooding has reportedly killed at least three people in Venezuela, three in Grenada and one in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Hurricane warnings were issued for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. Hurricane watches were also issued for the southern coast of Haiti and the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. Belize issued a tropical storm watch from the Mexican border south to Belize City.
Earlier, US NHC director Michael Brennan said Jamaica appeared to be in Beryl’s direct path.
“We are most concerned about Jamaica, with the center of a major hurricane expected to pass near or over the island,” he said in an online briefing. “You will want to be in a safe location to ride out the storm before nightfall.” [on Tuesday]Be prepared to remain in place until Wednesday.”
“This is a big risk in the Caribbean, especially in mountainous islands,” Brennan said. “It could cause life-threatening flash floods and landslides in some of these areas.”
The storm has also affected South America, where severe flooding has left three people dead and four missing in Venezuela, and Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was injured by a falling tree while inspecting the flooded Manzanares River in Sucre state.
Beryl became the fastest storm in the Atlantic to become a Category 5 hurricane, peaking at 165 mph winds on Tuesday before weakening to a still-destructive Category 4. It intensified in record time, in part due to unseasonably warm ocean temperatures that scientists attribute to global warming.
In Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where the super hurricane has already demonstrated its destructive power, the focus is now on relief, recovery and rebuilding.
After visiting Carriacou, Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell described scenes of “almost total destruction” that were “Armageddon-like,” with about 98 percent of buildings damaged or destroyed and the power grid and communications systems almost completely knocked out.
“I’ve seen it myself and nothing really prepares you for this level of destruction. It’s like Armageddon. Every building is almost completely damaged or destroyed, whether it’s public buildings, residential buildings or private facilities. Agriculture is completely devastated and the natural environment is completely destroyed. There is literally no vegetation left anywhere on Carriacou,” he said.
People also fled Union Island, where about 90 percent of homes were destroyed, and arrived by ferry to Kingstown, the capital of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
One of the evacuees, Sharon Desroches, said she and her family had taken refuge in the bathroom of their home during the hurricane. “It was tough, six of us fighting in that small space for four hours,” she said.
The last powerful hurricane to hit the southeastern Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.
“You could feel the wind howling and it was absolutely terrifying at times for the next two hours or so. Branches were flying everywhere,” said Roy O’Neill, a 77-year-old Grenada resident who was forced to rebuild his home after Ivan hit.
Hundreds of people took shelter in evacuation centres across the southeastern Caribbean, including 50 adults and 20 children who took shelter inside a school in Grenada.
“Maybe some people thought they could survive if they stayed inside, but they realized how serious this was and so they left,” said Urban Mason, a former teacher who was a shelter manager. “People tend to let their guard down.”
Scientists say the man-made climate crisis is making tropical storms more intense, frequent and destructive because warmer oceans provide more energy.
Among the homes damaged by Beryl was that of the parents of United Nations Climate Change Executive Director Simon Steele, a Carriacou native. The storm also destroyed the home of Steele’s late grandmother.
Stier said in a statement that the climate crisis is worsening faster than expected.
“Whether it’s my hometown of Carriacou being hit by Hurricane Beryl, or where heat waves and floods are devastating communities in one of the world’s largest economies, it’s clear that the climate crisis is pushing disasters to new, record-breaking levels of destruction,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
