Hurricane Beryl, an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm, entered the southeastern Caribbean on Monday, bringing life-threatening winds and storm surge to the Windward Islands. The storm made landfall on Grenada’s Carriacou Island with 150-mph winds, causing extensive damage. Hurricane warnings were in effect for several islands, with reports of power outages and flooding. Beryl is the earliest Category 4 hurricane on record for the Atlantic hurricane season, and it is expected to continue moving westward across the Caribbean Sea.
Beryl intensified rapidly from a tropical depression to a Category 4 hurricane, a trend that is attributed to warm waters brought on by climate change. The storm is expected to remain in the Caribbean Sea for the rest of the week before possibly making landfall on the Yucatán Peninsula as a Category 2 storm. It is then expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it moves into the Gulf of Mexico.
Barbados began opening emergency shelters and closing businesses as a precaution before the storm hit, affecting thousands of people on the island. The U.S. embassy in Barbados reported power outages and flooding in some areas. The storm is a cause for concern in the region, with officials urging residents to remain in shelter and not venture out during the eye of the storm.
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