People walk off the beach after attending a religious gathering in Bridgetown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024. Hurricane Beryl strengthened into a Category 4 storm as it approaches the southeast Caribbean.
People disassemble a beach bar's awning in preparation for Hurricane Beryl, in Bridgetown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024.
Ramon Espinosa - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A resident carries wood to cover his house's windows in preparation for Hurricane Beryl, in Bridgetown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024.
Ramon Espinosa - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sailboats line up to enter a marina ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Beryl in Speightstown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024.
Ricardo Mazalan - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS
People walk off the beach after attending a religious gathering in Bridgetown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024. Hurricane Beryl strengthened into a Category 4 storm as it approaches the southeast Caribbean.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — Hurricane Beryl ripped off doors, windows and roofs in homes across the southeastern Caribbean on Monday after making landfall on the island of Carriacou as the earliest storm of Category 4 strength to form in the Atlantic, fueled by record warm waters.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries, with communications largely down across the region.
Streets from St. Lucia island south to Grenada were strewn with shoes, trees, downed power lines and other debris scattered by winds up to 150 mph, just shy of a Category 5 storm. The storm snapped banana trees in half and killed cows that lay in green pastures as if they were sleeping, with homes made of tin and plywood tilting precariously nearby.
“Right now, I’m real heartbroken,” said Vichelle Clark King as she surveyed her damaged shop, filled with sand and water, in the Barbadian capital of Bridgetown.
Beryl was still swiping the southeast Caribbean late Monday afternoon even as it began moving into the Caribbean Sea on a track that would take it just south of Jamaica and toward Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula by late Thursday as a Category 1 storm.
Beryl was located about 125 miles northwest of Grenada and was moving west-northwest at 21 mph, with hurricane conditions possible on Jamaica Wednesday.
A hurricane watch was in effect for Jamaica, and a tropical storm warning for Grenada; St. Lucia; Martinique; St. Vincent and the Grenadine.; the entire southern coast of Haiti; and the southern coast of the Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque westward to the border with Haiti.
“Beryl is expected to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane as its moves over the eastern Caribbean,” the National Hurricane Center said.
The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.
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.
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 there’s been an “extensive” storm surge.
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, 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.
Forecasters had warned of a life-threatening storm surge of up to 9 feet in areas where Beryl made landfall, with 3 to 6 inches of rain for Barbados and nearby islands and possibly 10 inches in some areas, especially in Grenada and the Grenadines.
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