Hurricane Beryl hit the island of Carriacou on Monday, which is part of Grenada, in the West Indies, with winds of up to 240 km/h, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Monday.
• Read also: Hurricane Beryl, “extremely dangerous”, threatens the Caribbean
• Read also: The Caribbean threatened by Hurricane Beryl
Hurricane Beryl hit the island of Grenada in the West Indies on Monday with “devastating” winds of up to 240 km/h, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned.
“The eye of Beryl hit the island of Carriacou” in the south of the Antilles at 11:10 a.m. local time (3:10 p.m. GMT), declared the American agency, which had called on residents to “act immediately” to protect themselves.
Beryl is considered extremely dangerous and its winds have strengthened to “reach 240 km/h”, posing a potentially deadly threat, according to the NHC, which fears “catastrophic damage” for Grenada.
AFP
State Premier Dickon Mitchell called on residents to take shelter and respect the island-wide curfew from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. on Tuesday.
Béryl moved to category 4 on Monday after having been downgraded a few hours earlier to category 3 on the Saffir-Simson scale, without this removing his dangerous character.
A Category 4 hurricane is considered extremely dangerous because it is accompanied by winds of at least 209 kilometers per hour.
Beryl is the first hurricane of the season in the Atlantic. A weather event of this scale is extremely rare so early in the hurricane season – which runs from early June to late November in the United States.
AFP
“Only five major hurricanes (strength 3 or greater) have been recorded in the Atlantic before the first week of July. If Beryl does indeed become a major hurricane, it will be the sixth, and the earliest, on record this far east,” hurricane expert Michael Lowry told X.
Before hitting Grenada, strong winds had swept through Barbados, where gas stations were stormed by motorists stocking up on fuel. Supermarkets and convenience stores were packed with shoppers stocking up on water, food and other necessities. Everywhere, the scene was the same of residents nailing boards to their windows to protect them.
In addition to Barbados, several countries are placed on hurricane alert, such as Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. The French island of Martinique is on tropical storm alert, as are southern Haiti and Dominica.
Non-nomes season
In Martinique, the wind has strengthened since Sunday afternoon, with heavy, temporary showers, but not exceptional, according to AFP correspondents on site.
A state of emergency has been declared on the island of Tobago, the second largest island and tourist attraction in the Trinidad and Tobago archipelago.
All schools remained closed on Monday and they “will remain closed until further notice,” announced the island’s chief executive, Farley Augustine, during a press briefing on Sunday.
A meeting of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), scheduled for this week on the island, has been postponed.
The US NHC now expects it to remain strong as it moves across the Caribbean, and it has warned residents and local authorities in Dominica, Haiti, Jamaica, of the Cayman Islands and the rest of the northwest Caribbean.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had predicted an extraordinary season in late May, predicting the possibility of four to seven Category 3 or higher hurricanes.
