(Bridgetown) The Hurricane Beryl threatening the southeastern Caribbean has strengthened again and has been reclassified as “extremely dangerous” by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami in the United States, forcing residents to barricade themselves.
Videos from local media already show very violent winds, particularly in Barbados, the easternmost of the chain of islands located in the southern Caribbean, called in English the Windward Islands, where according to the NHC, the hurricane should arrive “on Monday morning”.
“ Beryl has strengthened into an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane. Potentially deadly winds and storm surge are expected this [lundi] morning in the Windward Islands,” the NHC announced Monday at 8:30 a.m. ET.
A few hours earlier, this hurricane, which was early for the season, had been downgraded to category 3 on the Saffir-Simson scale, without this reducing its dangerous nature.
A Category 4 hurricane is considered extremely dangerous because it is accompanied by winds of at least 209 kilometers per hour. Already on Sunday, at 5 p.m. (5 p.m. Eastern), Beryl was carrying winds of such force, according to the NHC.
“Don’t go anywhere until the all-clear is given,” urged Wilfred Abrahams, Barbados’ minister of public affairs. “So far, there have been no reports of injuries,” he added.
Beryl is the first Atlantic hurricane of the season for 2024, a weather phenomenon of this scale is extremely rare this early in the hurricane season – which runs from early June to late November in the United States.
“Only five major hurricanes [de force 3 ou plus] were recorded in the Atlantic before the first week of July. If Beryl actually becomes a major hurricane, it will be the sixth, and the earliest of those ever recorded also in the east,” explains hurricane expert Michael Lowry on X.
In Barbados, gas stations were packed with motorists stocking up on petrol. Supermarkets and convenience stores were packed with shoppers stocking up on water, food and other necessities. Everywhere, the scene was the same, with residents nailing boards to their windows to protect them.
PHOTO CHANDAN KHANNA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Billboards fell onto the street during the hurricane Beryl passed near Bridgetown, Barbados, on the 1ster July.
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.
In Martinique, the wind has strengthened since Sunday afternoon, with heavy showers, but not exceptional, according to AFP correspondents on the ground.
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.
“Most intense” season
St. Vincent and the Grenadines, along with Grenada, are most at risk of being caught in the hurricane’s path starting Monday morning, the NHC warned, warning that “potentially catastrophic wind damage is expected.”
In Grenada, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell called on residents to quickly take shelter and respect the curfew decreed for the entire island from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Tuesday.
According to the island’s disaster management agency, Berylmoving “rapidly”, is expected to make landfall between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. local Monday.
A meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), scheduled for this week on the island, has been postponed.
The NHC now expects it to remain powerful as it moves across the Caribbean, and has warned residents and local authorities in Dominica, Haiti, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and the rest of the northwestern Caribbean.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted an extraordinary season in late May, predicting the possibility of four to seven Category 3 or higher hurricanes.