Hurricane Beryl batters the Caribbean and strengthens to a Category 5 storm. July 2, 2024

Hurricane Beryl batters the Caribbean AFP Photo Archiv.

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Hurricane Beryl batters the Caribbean and strengthens to a Category 5 storm.

Hurricane Beryl strengthened into a category 5 storm late Monday after sweeping over several islands in the southeastern Caribbean, dumping heavy rains and unleashing devastating winds.

Beryl is now the oldest category 5 storm ever recorded in the Atlantic and has become a "potentially catastrophic" hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 260 kilometers per hour, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Earlier in the day, the island of Carriacou in Grenada took a direct hit from the storm's "extremely dangerous eye wall", with sustained winds of more than 150 miles, the NHC said.

Nearby islands, including St. Vincent and the Grenadines, also experienced "catastrophic winds and life-threatening storm surge," according to the NHC.

"Within half an hour, Carriacou was devastated," Grenada's Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said at a press conference.

"We are not out of the woods yet," Mitchell added, noting that although no deaths had been reported so far, he could not say for sure that none had occurred.

George's in Grenada showed heavy rain with trees hit by gusts of wind.

Later, on social media, Mitchell said that the government was working to get relief supplies to Carriacou and the island of Petite Martinique on Tuesday.

"The state of emergency is still in effect. Stay at home," he wrote on Facebook.

- Strong and rare storm at the start of the year - Mr. Beryl became the world's first hurricane.

Beryl became the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season on Saturday and quickly gained strength.

Experts say that such a powerful storm forming so early in the Atlantic hurricane season - which runs from early June to late November - is extremely rare.

It is the first hurricane since the beginning of the NHC's records to reach category 4 level in June, and the first to reach category 5 in July.

"Only five major hurricanes (Category 3+) were recorded in the Atlantic before the first week of July," published hurricane expert Michael Lowry on the social media platform X.

Barbados seems to have been spared the worst of the storm but was still hit by strong winds and torrential rain, although the authorities have reported no injuries so far.

Barbados seems to have "dodged a bullet", said Home Affairs and Information Minister Wilfred Abrahams in an online video, but even so, "the gusts are still coming, the storm-force winds are still coming", he said.

Homes and businesses were flooded in some areas, and fishing boats were damaged in Bridgetown.

The storm caused classes to be canceled on Monday on several islands, while a meeting in Grenada of the Caribbean regional bloc CARICOM was postponed.

Jamaica issued a hurricane warning ahead of the storm's expected arrival on Wednesday. The NHC has also alerted the Cayman Islands and areas of the Yucatán Peninsula to monitor the storm's progress.

- Extreme weather conditions - What is it?

A category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale is considered a major hurricane.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said at the end of May that it expects this year to be an "extraordinary" hurricane season, with up to seven storms of category 3 or higher.

The agency cited warm Atlantic Ocean temperatures and conditions related to the La Nina weather phenomenon in the Pacific for the expected increase in storms.

Extreme weather events, including hurricanes, have become more frequent and more devastating in recent years as a result of climate change.