BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (NEWSnet/AP) — 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.

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 hurricane has already killed four people.

Beryl made landfall on the island of Carriacou in Grenada as the earliest Category 4 storm in the Atlantic. Then late Monday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said its winds had increased to Category 5 strength and intensified further Tuesday morning to winds of 165 mph.

 

The center warned that Beryl was expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surge to Jamaica, where officials warned residents in flood-prone areas to prepare for evacuation.

“I am encouraging all Jamaicans to take the hurricane as a serious threat,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said in a public address late Monday. “It is, however, not a time to panic.”

An emergency team was expected to travel Tuesday morning to Carriacou, where Beryl flattened scores of homes and businesses.

“The situation is grim,” Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told a news conference Tuesday. “There is no power, and there is almost complete destruction of homes and buildings on the island. The roads are not passable, and in many instances they are cut off because of the large quantity of debris strewn all over the streets.”

Streets from St. Lucia island south to Grenada were strewn with shoes, trees, downed power lines and other debris. Banana trees were snapped in half and cows lay dead in green pastures with homes made of tin and plywood tilting precariously nearby.

The forecasted track sends the storm just south of Jamaica and toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula by late Thursday.

 

Big Start to Hurricane Season

 

Beryl amassed its strength from record warm waters that are hotter now than they would be at the peak of hurricane season in September, said hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry.

Short-lived Tropical Storm Chris had formed Sunday night near eastern Mexico before weakening back to a depression Monday.

A cluster of thunderstorms mimicking Beryl’s path in the western Atlantic was less organized late Monday but had a small chance of becoming a named storm in the next few days.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the 2024 hurricane season was likely to be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms.

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