(Trinidad Express) Hurricane Beryl strengthened into what experts called an “extremely dangerous” category 4 storm as it approached the south-east Caribbean, which began shutting down yesterday amid urgent pleas from government officials for people to take shelter.
The storm was expected to make landfall in the Windward Islands this morning. Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, St Lucia, Grenada, Tobago and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
“This is a very dangerous situation,” warned the National Hurricane Center in Miami, which said that Beryl was “forecast to bring life-threatening winds and storm surge.”
Beryl was located about 250 miles (400 kilometres) south-east of Barbados yesterday. It had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 18 mph (30 kph). It is a compact storm, with hurricane-force winds extending 35 miles (340 kilometres) from its centre.
A tropical storm warning was in effect for Martinique. A tropical storm watch was issued for Dominica, Trinidad, Haiti’s entire southern coast, and from Punta Palenque in the Dominican Republic west to the border with Haiti.
Beryl is expected to pass just south of Barbados early this morning and then head into the Caribbean Sea as a major hurricane on a path towards Jamaica. It is expected to weaken by midweek, but still remain a hurricane as it heads towards Mexico.
Beryl had strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane on Sunday morning, becoming the first major hurricane east of the Lesser Antilles on record for June, according to Philip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher.
It took Beryl only 42 hours to strengthen from a tropical depression to a major hurricane—a feat accomplished only six other times in Atlantic hurricane history, and with September 1 as the earliest date, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.
Beryl is now the earliest category 4 Atlantic hurricane on record, besting Hurricane Dennis, which became a category 4 storm on July 8, 2005, hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry said.
“Beryl is an extremely dangerous and rare hurricane for this time of year in this area,” he said in a phone interview. “Unusual is an understatement. Beryl is already a historic hurricane and it hasn’t struck yet.”
Hurricane Ivan in 2004 was the last strongest hurricane to hit the south-east Caribbean, causing catastrophic damage in Grenada as a category 3 storm.
“So this is a serious threat, a very serious threat,” Lowry said of Beryl.