Beryl hits Caribbean islands as powerful Category 4 hurricane

A woman runs Monday as water from the sea floods a street after the passage of Hurricane Beryl in the parish of Saint James, Barbados, near Bridgetown. CHANDAN KHANNA/Getty-AFP

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A dangerous and extremely powerful Hurricane Beryl made landfall Monday on the Caribbean island of Carriacou after becoming the earliest storm of Category 4 strength to form in the Atlantic, fueled by record warm waters.

Winds up to 150 mph, just shy of a Category 5 storm, blew off roofs, uprooted trees and caused other damage on Carriacou, one of the islands of Grenada, and elsewhere in the southeast Caribbean.

“This is an extremely dangerous and life- threatening situation,” the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Hurricane warnings were in effect for Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as thousands of people hunkered down in homes and shelters. The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan, which killed dozens of people in Grenada, 20 years ago.

NBC Radio in St. Vincent and the Grenadines said it received reports of roofs being torn off churches and schools as communications began collapsing across the southeast Caribbean.

In nearby Grenada, officials received “reports of devastation” from Carriacou and surrounding islands, said Terence Walters, Grenada’s national disaster coordinator. Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said there has been an “extensive” storm surge. Grenada officials had to evacuate patients to a lower floor after a hospital roof was damaged, he added.

On Monday afternoon, Beryl was about 65 miles northwest of the island of Grenada, moving west- northwest at 20 mph.

In Barbados, officials received more than a dozen reports of roof damage, fallen trees and downed electric posts across the island, said Kerry Hinds, emergency management director. Wilfred Abrahams, minister of home affairs and information, said drones would assess damage once Beryl passes.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for St. Lucia and Martinique. A tropical storm watch was issued for Haiti’s southern coast, and from Punta Palenque in the Dominican Republic west to the border with Haiti. A hurricane watch was issued for Jamaica.

Forecasters warned of a life-threatening storm surge of up to 9 feet in areas where Beryl made landfall, with 3 to 6 inches of rain for Barbados and nearby islands and possibly 10 inches in some areas, especially in Grenada and the Grenadines.

The storm was expected to weaken slightly over the Caribbean Sea on a path that would take it just south of Jamaica and later toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 1.

Beryl strengthened from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in 42 hours — a feat accomplished only six other times in Atlantic hurricane history, and with Sept. 1 as the earliest date, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.

Beryl is the second named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season. In June, Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in northeast Mexico and killed four people. On Sunday night, a tropical depression near the eastern Mexico coastal city of Veracruz briefly strengthened into Tropical Storm Chris, the season’s third named storm. It weakened Monday and was downgraded back to a tropical depression forecast to move inland.