By Deutsche Welle
01 Jul 2024, 23:16 PM EDT
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves reported on Monday (01.07.2024) that at least one person died and that there is “immense destruction” due to the passage of the “dangerous and destructive” Hurricane Beryl on the islands of Union, Mayreau and Canouan.
“At least one person died and there may be more deaths. We don’t know yet,” lamented the prime minister of San Vicente.
“A very dangerous and destructive Hurricane Beryl has come and gone and has caused immense destruction that our entire nation is suffering. “Hundreds of families are searching for their future. Union Island has been devastated. The reports I have received indicate that 90% of the houses have been damaged or destroyed,” Gonsalves said on NBC Radio.
Heartbreaking scenes emerging from Union Island, Grenadines 🇻🇨 after #HurricaneBeryl.
PM Gonsalves says local comms are down. UNICEF is on standby to assess the situation and deliver life-saving supplies to affected populations in the Eastern Caribbean.
📷: Dr Ralph Gonsalves pic.twitter.com/RF9zbZcIJc
— UNICEF Eastern Caribbean (@UNICEFECA) July 1, 2024
Beryl continued to lash the southeastern Caribbean on Monday afternoon, on a path that would take it just south of Jamaica and toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. late Thursday as a Category 1 storm, after causing devastation in several Caribbean countries.
Late Monday, Beryl’s winds increased to 250 kilometers per hour, on the verge of becoming a Category 5 hurricane.
Streets from the island of St Lucia south to Grenada were littered with shoes, trees, downed power lines and dozens of other debris scattered by winds of up to 150 mph.
Beryl split banana trees in half and killed cows that lay in green green pastures as if they were sleeping, and the tin and plywood houses swayed precariously.
“I’m heartbroken right now,” said Vichelle Clark King in Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, which was filled with sand and water.
Beryl was located about 925 kilometers (575 miles) east-southeast of Beata Island in the Dominican Republic and was moving west-northwest at 21 mph (33 kph), with hurricane conditions possible over Jamaica next Wednesday.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, and a tropical storm warning for the entire southern coast of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Keep reading:
• The shocking video of the eye of Hurricane Beryl that terrifies the Caribbean
• Storm Alberto has left three dead in Mexico and has Texas on alert for flooding
• The impressive images of the devastation left in the wake of storm Alberto in Mexico and Texas, which caused at least 3 deaths