Hurricane Beryl plowed into the Caribbean regaining Category 4 major hurricane strength on Monday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center. It’s expected to remain a powerful hurricane as it approaches Jamaica this week.
It made landfall at 11:10 a.m. with 150 mph sustained winds on Carriacou Island, a small island known for its coral reefs and sandy beaches governed by Grenada in the southern Leeward Islands.
Sobering satellite imagery of high-end Category 4 Hurricane #Beryl with max winds of 150 mph making landfall on Carriacou Island (Grenada).
Beryl is the strongest Caribbean hurricane ever recorded this early in the season and its making landfall at peak intensity.
Only one… pic.twitter.com/xivDCwYJnh
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) July 1, 2024
As of 8 p.m., the hurricane was located 910 miles east-southeast northwest of Jamaica in the western Caribbean Sea still maximum sustained winds of 155 mph as it moves west-northwest at 21 mph. Hurricane-force winds extend out 40 miles and tropical-storm-force winds extend out 125 miles.
NBC Radio in St. Vincent and the Grenadines said it received reports of roofs being torn off churches and schools as communications began collapsing across the southeast Caribbean.
We went from nearly flat calm to this in 45 min. South side of St Vincent. #Beryl pic.twitter.com/GRTsILpU7p
— Jim Edds (@ExtremeStorms) July 1, 2024
“Jesus Christ!” a woman yells in a video that showed tin roofs flying through the air.
In nearby Grenada, officials received “reports of devastation” from Carriacou and surrounding islands, said Terence Walters, Grenada’s national disaster coordinator. Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said he would travel to Carriacou as soon as it’s safe, noting that there’s been an “extensive” storm surge.
St Vincent pic.twitter.com/ns6hhpoFWU
— Jay Brown (@jayjaybrown97) July 1, 2024
Grenada officials had to evacuate patients to a lower floor after hospital roof was damaged, he said.
“There is the likelihood of even greater damage,” he told reporters. “We have no choice but to continue to pray.”
In Barbados, officials received more than a dozen reports of roof damage, fallen trees and downed electric posts across the island, said Kerry Hinds, emergency management director. Wilfred Abrahams, minister of home affairs and information, said drones — which are faster than crews fanning across the island — would assess damage once Beryl passes.
The system regained Category 4 strength early Monday after an eyewall regeneration, and began gaining steam as it approached the Windward Islands.
“Beryl is expected to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane as its moves over the eastern Caribbean. Some weakening is expected in the central Caribbean by midweek, though Beryl is forecast to remain a hurricane,” said NHC senior hurricane specialist Brad Reinhart.
Hurricane Beryl is a major category four storm as it nears the Windward Islands. pic.twitter.com/RDFPlEWMWm
— CIRA (@CIRA_CSU) July 1, 2024
Its center moved south of Barbados, which sits farther east than the rest of the Windward Islands, but then made a beeline for Carriacou Island south of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Hurricane warnings were dropped for much of the Windwards, but tropical storm warnings remain in effect for Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia and Martinique as well as the south coasts of part of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. A hurricane watch is in effect for Jamaica.
Storm surge was forecast to be as much as 6 to 9 feet above normal levels along with large and destructive waves while 3 to 6 inches of rain were forecast to fall across Barbados and the Windward Islands into Monday threatening flash flooding.
“It’s going to be terrible,” Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said ahead of the storm as he urged people to stay indoors “and wait this monster out.”
The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan nearly 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.
Barbados’ south coast endures storm surge as #HurricaneBeryl passes, while Tobago, Grenada and Saint Vincent & the Grenadines brace for further impact.
: UNICEFECA/2024 pic.twitter.com/Zx5P522TEK
— UNICEF Eastern Caribbean (@UNICEFECA) July 1, 2024
: UNICEFECA/2024 On the forecast track, the center of Beryl will move across the southeastern and central Caribbean Sea Monday night through Tuesday and is forecast to pass near Jamaica on Wednesday,” Reinhart said.
The system is expected to remain Category 4 before wind shear drops its intensity later in the week as it moves west.
Its five-day forecast has the system targeting the Yucatan peninsula by Friday as a Category 1 hurricane. It’s then projected to drop to tropical-storm strength as it reemerges from land into the Gulf of Mexico.
“Beryl is forecast to remain a powerful hurricane through late this week, and interests in the northwestern Caribbean and the Yucatan Peninsula should continue to monitor the latest forecast updates,” Reinhart said.
Meteorologist Philip Klotzbach with Colorado State University said Beryl’s quick growth into Category 3 major hurricane is the third earliest on record for the Atlantic behind 1966’s Hurricane Alma and 1957’s Hurricane Audrey.
It’s also the first June major hurricane on record east of the Lesser Antilles, he said, having already claimed the record for farthest east a hurricane has formed in June besting one from 1933.
The earliest Category 4 hurricane on record is Hurricane Dennis that grew to that intensity on July 8, 2005.
Sunday also saw the formation of the season’s third tracked system, Tropical Depression Three, which then grew into Tropical Storm Chris late Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico. By 8 a.m. Monday, the system return to tropical depression strength as it had moved inland and then became just remnants.
The NHC is also tracking an area of low pressure generating showers and thunderstorms in the central tropical Atlantic more than 1,000 miles east-southeast of the Windward Islands following a similar path as Beryl.
“Environmental conditions only appear marginally conducive for additional development of this
system, but a tropical depression could still form during the next few days while it moves generally westward at 15 to 20 mph across the central and western tropical Atlantic,” forecasters said. “Interests in the Lesser Antilles should monitor the progress of this system.”
The NHC gave is a 20% chance to develop in the next two days and 40% in the next seven.
The next name for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1-Nov. 30, is Debby.
The first named story of the season, Tropical Storm Alberto, formed on June 19 after a slow start to the season. The height of hurricane season, though, runs from mid-August into October.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast an above average year in the Atlantic with 17 to 25 named storms, of which eight to 13 are expected to become hurricanes, and four to seven of those be major hurricanes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.