At least one person has died in St Vincent and the Grenadines as a result of the passage of Hurricane Beryl. The death was announced by Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves on Monday night in an address to the nation.
“There may well be more fatalities, we are not yet sure,” Gonsalves said as he noted the devastation brought to Union Island, Canouan, and Mayreau in the Southern Grenadines islands by Hurricane Beryl.
Ninety percent of buildings on Union Island are either severely damaged or destroyed, Gonsalves stated.
The situation in Canouan and Mayreau is still unclear as communication with first responders is difficult. Despite the devastation, Gonsalves is thankful that many lives and homes were spared.
He said St Vincent and the Grenadines will start the reconstruction effort as soon as conditions are safe for first responders to begin clearing roadways and restoring power to cut-off communities.
Grenada impacted by Hurricane Beryl
Grenada also suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Beryl.
Ron Redhead, a member of Grenada’s parliament representing the St. George North-East area, shared photos and videos of Carriacou, showing roofs of homes torn open and snapped trees.
“In half an hour, Carriacou was flattened,” Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said. By Monday evening, the government had not yet shared an official death toll, though communications were strained.
There has been one unconfirmed death in the St. George’s area of Grenada. According to the Washington Post, a house reportedly collapsed, killing a resident.
Hurricane Beryl shattered records as it strengthened in unusually warm waters. On Sunday, it became the Atlantic’s first storm on record to reach Category 4 intensity in June, and then Monday it surpassed Hurricane Dennis as the strongest Atlantic hurricane to form so early in a year.
Beryl, with maximum sustained winds reaching 150 mph, is the strongest hurricane to hit the southernmost Windward Islands in about 174 years of record-keeping, meteorologists said. Hurricane Ivan in 2004 had maximum sustained winds of 135 mph when it killed 41 people and caused massive damage across Grenada.
Grenadian officials were already preparing to start damage assessments and relief work, though they did not expect that to safely begin until late Monday evening.
Officials had warned residents to stay indoors and seek shelter in concrete-lined bathrooms, if possible. Thousands of Grenadians sought refuge in shelters, local media reported.
On Carriacou and neighboring Petite Martinique, also part of Grenada in the southern Lesser Antilles islands, there was no electricity, limited communication, and reports of extensive destruction of roofs and damage to buildings, Mitchell said in a live-streamed media briefing earlier Monday. On the island of Grenada, a hospital and police station were among the buildings damaged, he said.
It’s still too early to say which landmass is next in line to be struck by Beryl after the Lesser Antilles, but Jamaica, Cuba, and Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula in particular are at risk.
The Jamaican government has upgraded its hurricane watch to a hurricane warning.
