Yachts toppled from their moorings, large cruising cats thrown on top of each other and many broken masts: Hurricane Beryl, which swept across the southern Antilles yesterday with unimaginable force, has left a trail of destruction not only in the towns and villages of the islands, but also in the ports and at the anchorages. The islands from St. Lucia to Grenada were particularly hard hit.
Yesterday at around 5 p.m. CEST, Beryl was the first island to reach the small Carriacou, north of Grenada. From there, a French sailor sent pictures of yachts hit by the storm via Facebook today. Rows of boats can be seen that have fallen off the trestles in the harbor of Tyrell Bay in the southwest of Carriacou.
No boat remained on land
Pierrick Quédinet writes: “Some of the boats in the water capsized or even sank. On land, all the monohull yachts fell over and many masts broke.” He is currently unable to estimate what happened to the crews who fled into the mangroves with their boats.
Hurricane Beryl is now west of the Antilles, between the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. On its northwestern path, it is expected to hit Jamaica tomorrow. There, too, massive damage is expected. Only then will Beryl gradually weaken and reach the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula as a tropical storm towards the end of the week.
Yesterday, Beryl was upgraded from hurricane category four to five. This makes it one of the most severe hurricanes in existence. At one point, it reached wind speeds of 225 kilometers per hour.
One of the worst hurricanes since records began
What’s more, only once before had a similarly severe hurricane been observed in the Caribbean, in July. In 2005, Emily raged over the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico for eleven days. At least ten people are believed to have died.
Beryl has not only left behind destroyed houses, blown-off roofs and massive flooding on many of the Windward Islands. One fatality has already been reported in Grenada. Since it will take some time before the authorities have a complete overview of the extent of the destruction, further victims cannot currently be ruled out.
