Hurricane Beryl, a powerful Category 5 storm, brought near 'total destruction' to parts of the Caribbean as it made its way across the Atlantic in early July 2024. The storm left widespread damage and devastation in its wake, with at least eight people reported dead and hundreds of thousands left without power.
The earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic, Beryl first hit three small islands in the eastern Caribbean, where about 90% of buildings and homes were destroyed or damaged. The storm then moved on to Jamaica on Wednesday, causing widespread outages and damage before passing over the Cayman Islands.
Beryl's impact was felt across the region, with Grenada's Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell reporting 'total destruction' in Carriacou and Petite Martinique. The storm also caused significant damage to public buildings, homes, private facilities, agriculture, natural environment, boats, marinas and the electrical grid in Grenada.
After leaving the Caribbean behind, Beryl was moving towards Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 3 storm. The Mexican authorities were taking no chances and had deployed over 13,000 workers and members of the armed forces along with rescue dogs, mobile kitchens and water-treatment plants in Quintana Roo to prepare for the storm's arrival.
In Jamaica, residents emerged from shelters to find a devastated landscape with damaged homes and roads covered with toppled utility poles and foliage. Southwest St. Elizabeth, known as the country's bread basket, was hit particularly hard.
Beryl is expected to make landfall in Mexico on Friday morning, bringing dangerous storm surges and hurricane-force winds.
