1-7-2024 (BRIDGETOWN) Residents of Barbados and the surrounding Caribbean islands are scrambling to complete emergency preparations as the region braces for the imminent arrival of Hurricane Beryl, an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm that has already etched its name in the record books. The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) has issued dire warnings, urging swift action ahead of Beryl’s expected landfall overnight – a historic event as it marks the first-ever Category 4 hurricane recorded in the month of June.
Currently churning in the Atlantic Ocean about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Barbados, Beryl is poised to remain an “extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane” as it barrels towards populated islands in the southeast Caribbean early Monday. The NHC’s urgent advisory stressed the need for residents to “rush to completion” any remaining preparations, emphasizing the critical importance of heeding local government and emergency officials.
The ominous forecast paints a grim picture, with Beryl expected to unleash “potentially catastrophic hurricane-force winds, a life-threatening storm surge, and damaging waves” upon the Windward Islands, a cluster that includes Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Grenada, among others. St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as Grenada, are at the highest risk of being at the center of the storm’s core beginning early Monday, according to the NHC.
Hurricane warnings are in effect for Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Tobago, while tropical storm warnings or watches have been issued for Martinique, southern Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, underscoring the widespread impact of this formidable weather system.
In the Barbadian capital of Bridgetown, the impending threat has prompted a flurry of activity, with residents lining up at gas stations and flooding supermarkets and grocery stores in search of essential supplies such as food, water, and emergency provisions. Some households have already begun the arduous task of boarding up their properties in anticipation of the storm’s fury.
Tobago, the smaller of the two islands that make up Trinidad and Tobago, has declared a state of emergency, with schools ordered closed on Monday. Farley Augustine, the island’s top official, has urged residents to heed the warnings and take necessary precautions.
Beryl’s rapid intensification has left meteorologists and hurricane experts in awe, as it became the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season early Saturday morning and quickly intensified to a Category 4 storm – an unprecedented feat for the month of June, according to NHC records.
A Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale packs sustained winds of at least 130 miles per hour (209 kilometers per hour), a strength that can cause devastating wind damage and storm surge flooding. As of 5:00 pm (2100 GMT) Sunday, Beryl was packing maximum sustained winds estimated at 130 mph, reinforcing the urgency of the situation.
While the storm is expected to maintain its powerful intensity as it traverses the Caribbean, the NHC has cautioned residents and officials in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and the rest of the northwestern Caribbean to closely monitor Beryl’s progress.
The formation of such a potent storm this early in the Atlantic hurricane season, which typically runs from early June to late November, is an extremely rare occurrence, leaving experts grappling with the implications of this unprecedented event.
“Only five major (Category 3+) hurricanes have been recorded in the Atlantic before the first week of July. Beryl would be the sixth and earliest this far east in the tropical Atlantic,” hurricane expert Michael Lowry noted on social media platform X.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had previously warned of an “extraordinary” hurricane season, with up to seven storms of Category 3 or higher, citing warm Atlantic Ocean temperatures and conditions related to the weather phenomenon La Nina in the Pacific as contributing factors.
