The Hurricane Berylparticularly early for the season, is preparing to hit Jamaica and then the Cayman Islands on Wednesday after having killed at least seven people and caused considerable destruction in the south-east Caribbean.
Beryl is currently a Category 4 hurricane on a scale of 5, with winds of 230 km/h, according to the American hurricane center, the NHC. It is expected to pass “near or over Jamaica in the coming hours,” according to the agency.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness has asked, in a video posted on social mediato “all Jamaicans to follow evacuation orders.” He “implored” anyone living in a flood-prone area to move “to a shelter or safer location.”
Beryl could hit Jamaica as a Category 3 or 4 hurricane, which could cause “considerable wind damage, including to homes, roofs, trees and power lines,” NHC Director Michael Brennan said Tuesday, calling the hurricane “extremely dangerous.” Mudslides and flash floods from torrential rains are also expected, including in southern Haiti.
Beryl The hurricane is then expected to pass or pass over the Cayman Islands late Wednesday or early Thursday, according to the NHC. The hurricane will then head toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, which it is expected to reach weakened Thursday night.
Berylthe first Atlantic hurricane of the season, impressed experts by rapidly gaining intensity over the weekend. It was even temporarily upgraded to a Category 5 hurricane, the highest, making it the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded by the U.S. weather service.
Scientists say climate change, particularly by warming the ocean waters that fuel these storms, is making their rapid intensification and the risk of more powerful hurricanes more likely.
An extraordinary season to expect
“It is clear that the climate crisis is pushing disasters to new record levels of destruction,” said UN Climate Change chief Simon Stiell. One of the two victims on Carriacou, an island in Grenada that was devastated by the hurricane’s eye on Monday, is a member of his family. “The climate crisis is getting worse, and faster than expected,” requiring “much more ambitious climate action from governments and businesses,” he added in a statement to AFP.
Three hurricane-related deaths have been reported in Venezuela. At least three people have been killed in Grenada, as well as one person in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said the island of Carriacou was cut off from the world with infrastructure and homes razed.
In the Dominican Republic, massive waves crashed onto the shore of the capital Santo Domingo, AFP photographers reported.
In Barbados, homes and businesses were flooded and fishing boats damaged in Bridgetown.
On the French island of Martinique, streets were flooded and some 10,000 customers were left without power, according to supplier EDF.
Such a powerful hurricane is extremely rare so early in the season, which runs from early June to late November. The US weather observatory, NOAA, had warned in late May that the season was shaping up to be extraordinary, with the possibility of four to seven Category 3 or higher hurricanes. These forecasts are linked in particular to the expected development of the La Niña weather phenomenon, as well as the very high temperatures of the Atlantic Ocean.
North Atlantic temperatures have been at record highs for more than a year, well above the historical record.