Hurricane Beryl roared through open waters on Tuesday as a monstrous Category 5 storm, on a path that would take it near Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
It has already killed at least four people after earlier making landfall in the southeast Caribbean.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica and a hurricane watch for Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. Beryl was forecast to start losing intensity on Tuesday but still expected to be near major hurricane strength when it passes near Jamaica on Wednesday, the Cayman Islands on Thursday and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Beryl is the earliest Category 5 storm ever to form in the Atlantic, fuelled by record warm waters.
Early Tuesday, the storm was located 485 kilometres southeast of Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic. It had top winds of 270 km/h and was moving west-northwest at 35 km/h.
“Beryl remains an impressive Category 5 hurricane,” the National Hurricane Center said.
A Category 5 hurricane — the top category on the five-step Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale — brings winds of 252 km/h or higher, and is capable of causing catastrophic damage, including the destruction of homes and infrastructure.
A tropical storm warning was in place for the entire southern coast of Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Being the earliest top-category hurricane on record in the Atlantic, Beryl “sets a precedent for what we fear is going to be a very, very, very active, very dangerous hurricane season, which will impact the entire [Caribbean and Central American] basin,” said Clare Nullis, spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization, the UN’s weather and climate agency.
As the storm barrelled through the Caribbean Sea, rescue crews in the southeast Caribbean fanned out across the region to determine the extent of Beryl’s damage after it landed on Carriacou, an island in Grenada, as a Category 4 storm.
Three people were reported killed in Grenada and Carriacou and another in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said.
One person was killed in Grenada after a tree fell on a house, said Kerryne James, minister of climate resilience, environment and renewable energy. She said the nearby islands of Carriacou and Petit Martinique sustained the greatest damage.
An emergency team was expected to travel on Tuesday morning to Carriacou, where Beryl flattened scores of homes and businesses. Water, food and baby formula were aid priorities, James said.
“The situation requires our immediate attention, and all efforts must be made to support our sister islands,” said Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell.
Meanwhile, Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, promised to rebuild the archipelago in a statement early Tuesday. He noted that 90 per cent of homes on Union Island were destroyed, and that “similar levels of devastation” were expected on the islands of Myreau and Canouan.
The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is projecting 17 to 25 named tropical storms and hurricanes this year, the most it has ever forecasted in its May outlook. CBC meteorologist Jay Scotland has more on the forecast and what it could mean for Atlantic Canada.
Beryl has broken several records, including marking the farthest east that a hurricane has formed in the tropical Atlantic in June, according to Philip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher.
The storm strengthened from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in just 42 hours, which only six other Atlantic hurricanes have done, and never before September, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.
Beryl is the second named storm in the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. Earlier this month, Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in northeast Mexico and killed four people.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the 2024 hurricane season would be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms. The forecast called for as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.
An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes, and three major hurricanes.