SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Beryl strengthened to what experts called an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm as it approached the southeastern Caribbean. The hurricane was shut down Sunday after officials urged people to seek shelter.
The storm was expected to make landfall in the Windward Islands on Monday 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 Beryl “would bring life-threatening winds and storm surges.”
Beryl was located about 250 miles southeast of Barbados. It had maximum sustained winds of 215 km per hour and was moving west-northwest at a speed of 30 km per hour. It is a compact storm, with hurricane force that extends up to 340 kilometers from the center.
A tropical storm warning was in effect for Martinique. A tropical storm watch was issued for Dominica, Trinidad, the entire southern coast of Haiti, and from Punta Palenque in the Dominican Republic west to the Haitian border.
Beryl is expected to pass just south of Barbados early Monday and then enter the Caribbean Sea as a major hurricane on its way to Jamaica. The storm is expected to weaken by mid-week but will still remain a hurricane as it heads toward Mexico.
Historical Hurricane: Beryl had strengthened to a Category 3 hurricane by Sunday morning, according to Philip Klotzbach, a hurricane researcher at Colorado State University. It was the first major hurricane recorded east of the Lesser Antilles in June.
It took Beryl just 42 hours to recover from a tropical depression to a major hurricane — a feat accomplished only six times before in the history of Atlantic hurricanes, and with September 1 as the earliest date, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.
Beryl is now the first Category 4 Atlantic hurricane on record, surpassing Hurricane Dennis, which became a Category 4 storm on July 8, 2005, according to hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry.
“Beryl is an extremely dangerous and rare hurricane for this time of year in this area,” he said in a telephone interview. “Unusual is an understatement. Beryl is already a historic hurricane and it has not yet struck.”
Hurricane Ivan was the last strongest hurricane to hit the southeastern Caribbean in 2004, causing catastrophic damage in Grenada as a Category 3 storm.
“So this is a serious threat, a very serious threat,” Lowry said of Beryl.
Reecia Marshall, who lives in Grenada, was working at a local hotel on Sunday. She prepared guests and urged them to stay away from windows while stocking enough food and water for everyone.
She said she was just a child when Hurricane Ivan hit and she is not afraid of Beryl.
“I know it’s part of nature. I’m okay with it,” she said. “We just have to learn to live with it.”
Forecasters warned of a life-threatening storm surge of up to 3 metres in areas where Beryl is expected to make landfall, with up to 15 centimetres (6 inches) of rain expected for Barbados and nearby islands.
Warm waters fueled Beryl, with the ocean heat content in the deep Atlantic Ocean being the highest ever recorded for this time of year, said Brian McNoldy, a tropical meteorology researcher at the University of Miami. Lowry said the waters are warmer now than at the height of the hurricane season in September.
Beryl marks the farthest east a hurricane has formed in the tropical Atlantic Ocean in June, breaking a record set in 1933, Klotzbach said.
“Please take this very seriously and prepare yourselves,” said Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. “This is a terrible hurricane.”
Prepare for the storm: Long lines formed at gas stations and supermarkets in Barbados and other islands as people rushed to prepare for a storm that quickly intensified.
Thousands of people were in Barbados on Saturday for the Twenty20 World Cup final, cricket’s biggest event, with Prime Minister Mia Mottley noting that not all fans could leave on Sunday despite many rushing to change their flights.
“Some of them have never been through a storm before,” she said. “We have plans to take care of them.”
Mottley said all businesses must close by Sunday evening and warned the airport would close in the evening.
People across Barbados were bracing for the storm, including Peter Corbin, 71, who was helping his son hang plywood to protect the glass doors of his home. He said by phone that he was worried about Beryl’s impact on the islands just east of Barbados.
“That’s like a butcher cutting up a pig,” he said. ‘They have to make a bunker somewhere. It will be tough.”
In St. Lucia, Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre announced a national lockdown for Sunday evening and said schools and businesses would remain closed on Monday.
“Preserving and protecting lives is a priority,” he said.
Looking forward: Leaders in the Caribbean were preparing not only for Beryl, but also for a series of thunderstorms following the hurricane that have a 70% chance of becoming a tropical depression.
“Don’t let your guard down,” Mottley said.
Beryl is the second named storm in what is expected to be an above-average hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30 in the Atlantic Ocean. Earlier this month, Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in northeastern Mexico, dumping heavy rains that left four people dead.
A tropical depression formed near the eastern coastal city of Veracruz on Sunday evening, with the National Hurricane Center warning of flooding and mudslides.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that the 2024 hurricane season will likely be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms. The forecast is that there will be as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.
An average Atlantic hurricane season produces fourteen named storms, seven of which are hurricanes and three major hurricanes.
