Hurricane Beryl brought turbulent waters, damaging winds and flooding rains to Jamaica on Wednesday as it passed south of the coast, killing at least one person on the island. The Category 4 storm hit Jamaica days after sweeping across the eastern Caribbean, killing at least seven people.
Earlier this week, the storm made landfall on Grenada’s Carriacou and Petite Martinique islands, turning almost every building into rubble, with hospitals and docks destroyed, roofs torn off and tree trunks soaking like matchsticks. broken on the ground.
“We have to rebuild from the ground up,” Grenada Prime Minister Deacon Mitchell said.
Ahead of the hurricane, Jamaica closed its airports and issued evacuation orders for low-lying and flood-prone areas. The storm was the strongest to hit the island in more than a decade. The last time a major hurricane passed within 70 miles of Jamaica was in 2007, much longer than that before landfall.
A woman has died when a tree fell on her house in the parish of Hanover in western Jamaica, the country’s first confirmed death from the storm, said Richard Thompson, head of the country’s disaster agency. event.
A rescue team was also searching for a 20-year-old man who was swept into a gully while trying to retrieve a ball he was playing with friends, according to Senior Sergeant Michael Phipps.
In Grenada, officials said some 98% of buildings in Carriacou and Petite Martinique, home to a combined 9,000 to 10,000 people, were damaged or destroyed, including the Princess Royal Hospital, Carriacou’s main medical facility. Crops were damaged and downed trees and power poles littered the streets.
The natural environment has also taken a hit.
“There’s literally no vegetation left anywhere on Carriacou,” Mr Mitchell said after visiting the islands. “The mangroves are completely destroyed.”
The death toll is likely to rise as recovery and aid efforts continue. Officials reported three people were killed in the storm in Grenada, including two in Carriacou. Another incident was reported in the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said on Tuesday that three deaths had been reported in the north of the country.
In Jamaica, emergency teams began clearing roads blocked by downed trees, debris and power poles in several flood-ravaged communities as Hurricane Beryl moved away from the island. Officials said about 80 roads were affected. Many homes and businesses lost their roofs. Recovery efforts were hampered by still heavy rain and gusty winds.
Power has been restored to some areas and Jamaicans are trying to count their losses. The south-central parish of St. Elizabeth, known as Jamaica’s “breadbasket” for its role in supplying key crops, was hit hard by the storm.
“We’ve had some significant losses,” said Renworth Fulton, the head of Jamaica’s largest agricultural group. “Crops such as yams, coconuts, coffee, carrots, etc. have been severely affected.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said nearly 500 people had taken refuge in shelters on the island.
The hurricane also destroyed part of the roof of Jamaica’s main airport, Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport, which was closed Tuesday night.
Jamaica’s Transport Minister Daryl Vaz said a plan is being developed to figure out how the airport will operate while the roof of the aerobridge for boarding and arrivals is being repaired. The storm is expected to approach the Cayman Islands Wednesday into Thursday morning with hurricane conditions and a storm surge of two to four feet.
In the Cayman Islands, where most businesses have begun to close, residents queue up for last-minute purchases and endure agonizingly slow commutes in heavy traffic.
All hotels on the island have also activated emergency response plans, and more than 1,000 people have been evacuated from flights.
Cayman Islands Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly said the shelter-in-place order will begin Wednesday evening.
“Let’s stay calm, be prepared, look out for each other, and face this challenge together,” she told a news conference. “If we work together, we can minimize the impact of Cyclone Beryl and protect our Community.”
But the government’s actions did not reassure 40-year-old Puspa Lumba-Makum.
“No matter what the leaders say, I’m really scared,” said Ms. Lumba Makum, a hairstylist from Nepal. “I’m not sure Cayman is fully prepared for this.”
Forecasters are watching closely for changes in the hurricane’s intensity as it heads toward the Yucatan Peninsula. There are concerns that the storm could strengthen again if it passes through the Gulf of Mexico this weekend. It is expected to make landfall again somewhere in the western Gulf of Mexico on Sunday or Monday, but its strength and exact path remain uncertain.
The Mexican government has issued a hurricane warning for the Yucatan Peninsula, which stretches from Puerto Maya on the east coast to Cancun.
The storm already set records as the first Category 4 hurricane to form in the Atlantic early this season, and then the first Category 5 storm. A recent study found that as ocean temperatures rise, hurricanes in the Atlantic are more likely to develop into a major storm in just 24 hours.
Grenada Prime Minister Mitchell said the powerful storm was a direct result of global warming and that Grenada and similar countries were on the front lines of the climate crisis.
“We are no longer prepared to accept that we continue to suffer significant, visible losses and damage from climate events and expect to rebuild year after year, while the countries that caused and exacerbated it are accepted.
Jovan Johnson Reporting from Kingston, Jamaica; Daphne Ewing Zhou from George Town, Cayman Islands; and Linda Straker from Guyaf, Grenada.
